The results announced by NEC chairperson Oda Gasinzigwa show that Kagame of the RPF Inkotanyi party is leading in the presidential race with 7,099,810 votes, which represents 99.15 percent of the votes tallied so far. Habineza of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda follows with 38,301 votes (0.53%), and independent candidate Philippe Mpayimana managed a meagre 22,753 votes (0.32%).
Reacting to the results, Habineza said his party had accepted the results and congratulated Kagame ahead of the official announcement of the final results.
"Dear Rwandans, we have received the preliminary results released by the NEC. We would like to announce that we have accepted these results and extend our congratulations to the winner, His Excellency Paul Kagame," Habineza said at Olympic Hotel in Kimironko, Kigali, where he was awaiting the results.
He left the hotel immediately after the comments.
Mpayimana, on his part, told journalists that the announced results were provisional and that he remains hopeful as the country awaits the final declaration of the results.
At the time of the announcement of the partial results on Monday night, NEC had tallied 7,160,864 votes, representing 78.94 percent of the votes cast.
A total of 9,071,157 Rwandans had registered to vote in the 2024 general election. Gasinzigwa said Monday's voter turnout was 98 percent.
The NEC boss will announce provisional results on July 20, with final results expected on July 27.
Meanwhile, Kagame's victory mirrors the outcome of the 2017 polls, where he won with 98.8 percent of the votes cast. Mpayimana and Habineza, who also challenged him in the 2017 election, got 0.73 and 0.48 percent of the votes cast respectively.
Reacting to his poised victory on Monday, President Kagame said that receiving a high number of votes demonstrates the continued trust Rwandans have in him.
"This electoral process of campaigning and voting, and now the results we are seeing, signify something very important in a person's life. It shows trust, and I thank you for that. Trust is not easy to come by. It is not something you give to someone in an instant and then immediately receive in return; trust is something built over time," Kagame told supporters gathered at RPF Inkotanyi headquarters in Rusororo.
"If you observe, because of this trust, all these years we have spent together [...] I am never surprised by anything, no matter the difficulties we have gone through or will go through in the future. The reason is exactly that, the trust I was talking about. I am confident that, together, we will solve any problem we face."
Wycliffe Nyamasege
