He scored a big victory? Over who -- since there was virtually no opposition?
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Rwanda's President Scores a Big Election Victory
August 26, 2003
By MARC LACEY
KIGALI, Rwanda, Aug. 26 - President Paul Kagame will remain
in office for another seven years after scoring a landslide
victory in the Rwandan presidential election, the first
since the 1994 genocide.
According to the official results, which still must be
ratified by the supreme court, Mr. Kagame won 95 percent of
the vote.. His leading challenger, Faustin Twagiramungu,
won 3.6 percent and a third candidate, Jean Nepomuscene
Nayinzira, had 1.3 percent.
"The electoral commission is pleased to announce Paul
Kagame is the winner of this election," Election Commission
President Chrysologue Karangwa told a news conference
today.
During an overnight rally at the capital's Amahoro Stadium,
Mr. Kagame addressed thousands of supporters and members of
his Rwandan Patriotic Front.
"I thank you for the confidence you have placed in me and I
will not let you down," said Mr. Kagame, waving a baseball
cap in salute to jubilant supporters.
Mr. Kagame has held the job since 2001 as part of a
transitional government set up after the frenzy of ethnic
violence nine years ago in which Hutu extremists killed
800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu.
The election had all the trappings of democracy. Beginning
at dawn, voters turned out in huge numbers across this tiny
and troubled Central African country, where strife has been
as much a part of the landscape as the lush rolling hills.
There have been presidential elections in the 40 years
since Rwanda's independence from Belgium, but never have
voters had a choice at the polls.
There were four names on the ballot this time, although Mr.
Kagame, who is Tutsi, worked aggressively behind the scenes
to neutralize his rivals, all of whom were from the
majority Hutu population. His campaign persuaded Alivera
Mukabaramaba, the only woman in the race, to pull out in
the 11th hour and endorse Mr. Kagame.
Jean-Nipomuschne Nayinzira, who claimed divine intervention
in his campaign, posed little challenge. But Faustin
Twagiramungu, a former prime minister, was viewed as a
threat, and he found his campaign stymied at every turn by
government security forces.
Mr. Kagame, 46, was the rebel general who ousted the Hutu
government that had stirred the populace to kill in 1994. A
tall, quiet man who is said to have a quick temper, he has
pushed hard in recent years to wipe out the country's
ethnic labels, and he saw his broad backing tonight as a
sign that the country was moving in the right direction.
"It's a big democratic step that has been taken by our
country," Mr. Kagame said outside a secondary school in the
capital where he voted on Monday morning. "It's a huge
stride."
Others were calling it a baby step.
Observers dispatched at polling places across the country
on Monday had few complaints.
Mr. Kagame's government actively quelled any serious
opposition in the months leading up to election day. Some
seen as posing a threat to his hold on power were arrested.
Others have disappeared. The leading opposition party was
forced to disband.
On the streets of Kigali on Monday, not a single opposition
poster or T-shirt or leaflet could be found. But everywhere
one looked, there seemed to be photographs of the
bespectacled Mr. Kagame.
On the eve of the vote, Amnesty International denounced the
government for instilling a "climate of fear" among the
population.
Despite Mr. Kagame's disavowal of ethnicity as a part of
the national discourse, it was ethnicity that prompted
concern among his supporters. Hutu make up 85 percent of
the population, and Mr. Kagame's backers feared that
despite his accomplishments in office, he would be ousted
if voters took ethnic background into consideration.
Throughout the campaign, Mr. Twagiramungu was blasted as a
"divisionist" by Mr. Kagame for speaking openly of Rwanda's
racial divide. Tutsi officials still held most of the
crucial positions in government and business, Mr.
Twagiramungu would say. Mr. Kagame denounced such talk and
suggested that the security that the country currently
enjoys would be in danger if Mr. Twagiramungu somehow
triumphed.
In a sign of the fear within Mr. Kagame's government, Mr.
Twagiramungu found his rallies canceled, his workers
arrested and his brochures seized. On Saturday night, the
police rounded up a dozen Twagiramungu backers at a bar and
charged them with holding an illegal meeting.
Mr. Twagiramungu said he fully expects to be sent to jail,
which is what happened in 2002 to Pasteur Bizimungu, who
held the presidency before Mr. Kagame. "We are ready for
prison," Mr. Twagiramungu said on the eve of the election.
Mr. Kagame said on Monday that the law, not he, would
decide whether Mr. Twagiramungu would be jailed. The police
commissioner, Frank Mugambage, said Mr. Twagiramungu had
clearly violated election law by being "divisive."
"What I am guaranteeing," he said, "is that we will ensure
that the law will be abided by."
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/26/international/africa/26CND-RWAN.html?ex=1063011629&ei=1&en=f3d0065d05605c82
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