In partial results announced on Monday night, RPF Inkotanyi presidential candidate Paul Kagame is leading with 99.15 percent of the votes cast, followed by Frank Habineza of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, who got 0.53 percent of the votes, while independent candidate Philippe Mpayimana managed 0.32 percent.
At the time of the announcement of the results, Kagame had garnered 7,099,810 votes, Habineza had got 38,301 votes, and Mpayimana had obtained 22,753 votes on the national level.
The total number of votes tallied was 7,160,864, which represents 78.94 percent of the votes cast locally and in the diaspora.
While it is evident that Kagame outshined his challengers in all four provinces and the city of Kigali, Mpayimana performed better than Habineza in the diaspora and Western Province.
Kagame secured 38,803 votes (95.40%) from the Rwandan community abroad, Mpayimana came in a distant second with 998 votes (2.45%), followed by Habineza with 874 votes (2.15%).
A similar trend was observed in the Western Province, where Kagame got 1,601,447 votes (99.60%), followed by Mpayimana with 4,646 votes (0.29%), and Habineza with 1,839 votes (0.11%).
Kagame whitewashed the two candidates in the Northern Province to lead with 1,147,962 (99.65%), followed by Habineza who got 3,053 votes (0.27%), and Mpayimana who obtained 955 votes (0.08%).
Similarly, Kagame leads in the Southern Province with 1,592,657 votes (98.60%), followed by Habineza with 11,753 (0.73%) and Mpayimana with 10,855 (0.67%).
In the Eastern Province, Kagame got 1,754,489 votes (99.30%), Habineza came in a distant second with 11,349 (0.64%) followed by Mpayimana with 961 votes (0.05%).
The City of Kigali gave Kagame a boost to secure a landslide victory with 964,452 votes (98.59%), followed by Habineza with 9,433 votes (0.96%) and Mpayimana with 4,338 votes (0.44%).
A total of 9,071,157 Rwandans registered to vote in the 2024 general election. Gasinzigwa said Monday's voter turnout was 98 percent.
The NEC will announce provisional results on July 20, with final results expected on July 27.
Overall, this year's results mirror the outcome of the 2017 edition, where Kagame 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.
Wycliffe Nyamasege
