Kigali, Jul. 23, (dpa/GNA) – Incumbent Paul Kagame has won a fourth term in office in the presidential election in Rwanda.

With all votes counted, Kagame garnered 99.18% of the vote, according to the electoral commission.

His two opponents, the chairman of the Green Party, Frank Habineza, received 0.5% while independent candidate Philippe Mpayimana received 0.32% of the vote, according to final results from the commission.

More than nine million people were eligible to vote on July 15, including two million first-time voters.

Kagame has been president of the country since 2000, but has, in practice, been leading Rwanda since 1994. Back then, as leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), he marched into Rwanda from exile in Uganda and ended the genocide of the Hutu militias against the Tutsi. He was then defence minister and vice president.

Kagame’s party, RPF, is the strongest party in parliament following the elections. According to figures from the electoral commission, it won 37 seats in parliament, while none of the opposition parties won more than five seats.

A total of 670 candidates ran for the 80 parliamentary seats.

A special feature is that female lawmakers make up a majority in parliament.

Human rights organizations have criticized the persecution of opposition figures in the East African country with a population of over 14 million.

Lewis Mudge, director for Central Africa at the human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW), described the election as “theatre.”

Rights watchdog Amnesty International claims that the candidacies of at least six opposition politicians were denied by the electoral commission, citing allegedly missing documents, although the politicians had sufficient voter support to qualify for the election.

GNA