Will Paul Kagame win a landslide in Rwanda election? Here’s what to know
Al Jazeera
Leader for 30 years, president faces off against weak opposition with nearly no support as other candidates are barred.
After a low-key election campaign that featured just two parties, 9.7 million Rwandans are eligible to vote next week to choose a president and members of parliament who will serve for the next five years.
President Paul Kagame, who has led the country for the 30 years since the 1994 genocide, is largely unchallenged and is expected to once again win the election.
Despite polling dismally in the last presidential election, two opposition candidates with little support and weak campaign structures are again facing off against Kagame and his ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) coalition. Several other candidates were barred from running.
The vote is being held amid escalating tensions between Rwanda and the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Kinshasa accuses Kigali of sponsoring the M23 rebel group, which is waging war in the eastern DRC. Kigali denies this.
Voting is also taking place after an asylum seeker deportation deal that Kagame’s government has pursued with the United Kingdom collapsed. After the Labour Party won UK elections last week, new Prime Minster Keir Starmer announcing that the agreement would be scrapped.
