President Paul Kagame's electoral success comes with questions about his democratic credentials.
There is very little room for improvement for Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame in Monday’s election after getting almost 99% of the vote last time round.
His soft, thoughtful delivery forces the listener to take note and when he speaks he is usually very direct, rarely mincing his words. Some accuse his then rebel army of revenge killings at the time, but his government has consistently said they were isolated instances and that those responsible were punished.
“Look at how I am studying well. If he was not president, I might not study well maybe due to lack of security,” she tells the BBC. Mr Kagame has also been accused of silencing, through imprisonment and intimidation, other potential opponents. He once told the Al Jazeera news channel he should not be held responsible for a weak opposition.
“Really to be honest, is a farce,” says Filip Reyntjens reflecting on the poll. The Belgian political scientist is an expert on the Great Lakes region.“I mean the national electoral commission attributes votes rather than counting votes,” he alleges, citing the last European Union observer mission report of 2003 and the Commonwealth observer mission report of 2010.
But, barely two years old, he became a refugee in neighbouring Uganda, fleeing the persecution and pogroms of the late 1950s with his family and thousands of others from the minority Tutsi population. While in the capital, Kigali, he frequented a particular hotel in Kiyovu, one of the city’s wealthiest neighbourhoods. Its bar was popular with politicians, security officers and civil servants who gossiped as they sipped their beer after work.
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