News / Africa
Rwanda: ruling party headed for a landslide victory
17 Sep 2013 at 06:55hrs | Views
A child holds a party flag as supporters of the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) rally in Kigali, September 14, 2013 (AFP/File, Tony Karumba)
Kigali - The ruling party of Rwandan President Paul Kagame is headed for a widely-predicted landslide win in parliamentary elections, officials said on Tuesday.
The National Election Commission said the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which has dominated the central African nation since ending the genocide nearly 20 years ago, has scored 76% of the vote with three-quarters of the ballots counted.
Analysts say the RPF faced no serious opposition, with only a handful of small parties or independent candidates hoping to scrape a few seats in parliament, and prominent opposition figures sidelined.
The NEC's president, Kalisa Mbanda, said the independent Social Democrats and Liberals had scored 13 and 9.4% respectively, while the PS-Imberakuri party had failed to muster even 1%.
"We can safely say that there will be no major change in the results," the election official said.
With Rwanda's economy one of the continent's fastest growing, the government has been keen to show off the elections as a badge of national unity and democratic health.
The small nation was left in ruins by the genocide of 1994, in which close to a million people, mostly from the ethnic Tutsi minority, were butchered by Hutu extremists.
The National Election Commission said the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which has dominated the central African nation since ending the genocide nearly 20 years ago, has scored 76% of the vote with three-quarters of the ballots counted.
Analysts say the RPF faced no serious opposition, with only a handful of small parties or independent candidates hoping to scrape a few seats in parliament, and prominent opposition figures sidelined.
The NEC's president, Kalisa Mbanda, said the independent Social Democrats and Liberals had scored 13 and 9.4% respectively, while the PS-Imberakuri party had failed to muster even 1%.
"We can safely say that there will be no major change in the results," the election official said.
With Rwanda's economy one of the continent's fastest growing, the government has been keen to show off the elections as a badge of national unity and democratic health.
The small nation was left in ruins by the genocide of 1994, in which close to a million people, mostly from the ethnic Tutsi minority, were butchered by Hutu extremists.
Source - AFP
