IT is now official, President Paul Kagame, the RPF Inkotanyi candidate in the just concluded Rwanda presidential race, has been declared the winner with a 93.08% lead over his three challengers.
The figure is an overwhelming margin by far, compared to Kagame’s rivals but a slightly lower in his win of 2003. He won 4,638,560 of the 5,490,302 votes cast on the 9th of Aug 2010. Some 5,178,492 voters had registered earlier for the historic poll.
The National Electoral Commission (NEC) declared Kagame the winner today, after two days of calculating the national vote tally, commission chairman, Prof. Chryslogue Karangwa said.
Kagame polled 4,638,560 votes, representing 93.08% of the total national tally while his closest challenger, deputy parliament speaker, Dr. Jean Damascene Ntawukuliryayo (PSD) came second with 5.15% (256,488 votes).
The two others, Prosper Higiro (Liberal Party) and Dr. Alvera Mukabaramba received 68,235 and 20,107 votes each, representing 1.37% and 0.40%, respectively.
Prof. Karangwa told reporters that his commission had released the results within the provided time frame and that the different domestic election laws empowered him to declare the results.
“Based on those electoral laws, the board of directors of NEC declares Paul Kagame the President of our country for the next seven years,” he said, reading from a statement he said had been endorsed by six other commissioners.
The meeting was also attended by representatives of different observer groups as well as the local, regional and international media.
Prof. Karangwa said voter turn-up was high at 97.51%, although 68,685 votes were invalidated, representing 1.36 percent
On average, Kagame scored between 93% and 96% in provincial tallies. Some 21,717 Diaspora voters had registered to vote although 15,517 did actually vote.
The election chief said some 65,014 support staff and volunteers helped to organize and manage the elections. There were 2,273 polling centres countrywide and 15,507 polling stations.
“In the Diaspora, we had 23 polling centres and 73 polling stations overall. We spent Frw. 8.5 billion for the entire process,” he explained.
A total of 1,444 local and international observers were in the country to oversee the process, while some 355 journalists covered the event, 239 of them international correspondents.
“I am happy about the outcome of this election and I’d like to thank all stakeholders who prepared and participated in the management of the polls,” said Karangwa.
NEC chairman forwarded the results to the Supreme court which will validate and approve the final results.