Kagame wins Rwanda election with 99.15pc of vote: partial results

Incumbent President of Rwanda and Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) presidential candidate Paul Kagame gets her finger inked with indelible ink by a Rwanda National Electoral Commission (NEC) official after casting his ballot at the SOS Kinyinya polling station in Kigali, on July 15, 2024. [AFP]

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame won a crushing election victory that will extend his iron-fisted rule by another five years, according to partial results issued on Monday.

De facto leader since the end of the 1994 genocide and president since 2000, Kagame scored 99.15 per cent of the vote, the National Election Commission announced after 79 per cent of ballots had been counted.

It tops the 98.79 per cent Kagame won in the last election in 2017 and is streets ahead of the vote garnered by the only two candidates authorised to run against him.

Democratic Green Party candidate Frank Habineza was given 0.53 per cent of the vote and independent Philippe Mpayimana 0.32 per cent.

The outcome of Monday's poll was never in doubt, with Kagame accused of muzzling the opposition and several prominent critics barred from the race.