Paul Kagame won a new mandate at 10:00 p.m. on July 15, 2024, according to the President of the Electoral Commission in Rwanda, Oda Gasingizwa, who announced that the candidate of the RPF Inkotanyi won the other candidates who were competing, namely Mpayimana Philippe who was an independent candidate, and Dr. Frank Habineza who was nominated by the Green Party.
Provisional statistics showed that Paul Kagame won by a lot, where he had 99.15% of the votes while the others, Habineza had 0.53% while Mpayimana had 0.32%. This shows that Paul Kagame has won a five-year mandate to be the President of Rwanda from 2024 to 2029, because even though these votes are provisional, there is no doubt that even the last vote statistics will be the candidate with the most votes.
Some people who oppose the government say that it is not appropriate to be elected by 99.15% of the votes, and they say that there is no democracy involved. However, Paul Kagame declared in his campaign that it is a democracy, because the leaders of the country who used to be elected by 15 votes, are not democratic.
Even though there are many others who are not surprised, but the experts of observation come back to the actions Paul Kagame has done, and see that the fact that he did not do it one hundred percent is not understandable. In this story we made with the help of Rwanda Today and other media, we come back to the outstanding activities of Paul Kagame that made the votes appropriate.
In 2029, Paul Kagame will have led Rwanda for 29 years, because he became the President of Rwanda for the first time in 2000 replacing President Pasteur Bizimungu, after 6 years as Vice President, and in 2003 he was elected for the first time by ’people as a non-interim President.
Rwanda is called the second born, because it has a history that made era, which are Before the Genocide against the Tutsis, and After the Genocide against the Tutsis. Rwanda died and was reborn in 1994, the period of its birth started with Paul Kagame.
Although it was the Inkotanyi who freed them, Paul Kagame was the one who led the other lions who were part of the RPA, in a gun battle that seemed to be suicide for them to fight against the state that had more resources.
After Paul Kagame stopped Genocide with his RPA lions, he fought those who came back to attack Rwanda and want to restore it, who had committed the Genocide, known as the Abacengezi. He fought those who wanted to disturb the security of Rwanda, both inside and outside the country. He did this without being called the President.
Rwanda was completely destroyed, no electricity, no water, no transport, no police, no markets, no schools, no food, no communication, no buildings, no clothes, no good relations with the world, people they were disturbed, others were broken-hearted, orphans and widows filled the land, the crippled, the hospitals were full of sick people, and there was conflict between the tribes. That is how Kagame found Rwanda.
In 1998, he became the leader of the RPF Inkotanyi, because before that he was its best army commander. What destroyed the country, he changed it, he led the project to liberate Rwanda, he brought in infrastructure, whether it was repairing the existing ones or bringing in new ones, he brought electricity, water and distributed it around, he built schools, he built hospitals and put in medical experts;
He brought factories that make clothes, he built and put cars on the roads, helped orphans and widows, continued to protect the country, gained friends from other countries, above all, he united the ethnic groups in Rwanda, the names Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa were replaced by Rwandan, but they were left in the bad history of Rwanda.
Rwandans have never forgotten it, but they remember it more and more because he does what he promises, which has made him being given the name of ’Speech is the work’.
After seeing Rwandans trusting him, he announced the following words: "Trust makes me confident that together, there is no challenge we will not surmount."
He thanked all his voters, he also thanked eight other parties who agreed to support him.