One person has died and dozens injured during a stampede at President Paul Kagame’s campaign rally, ahead of a vote widely expected to extend the incumbent’s 24-year iron-fisted rule.
Kagame has been Rwanda’s de facto ruler since the end of the 1994 genocide which claimed some eight hundred thousand lives, mostly Tutsis but also moderate Hutus.
President since 2000, the 66-year-old will face the same rivals as he did in 2017: the leader of the opposition Democratic Green Party, Frank Habineza, and former journalist, Philippe Mpayimana, who is running as an independent.
Campaigning kicked off on Saturday, with Kagame addressing rallies in Musanze and Rubavu in northern Rwanda on the weekend.
Kagame has been praised for Rwanda’s economic recovery after the genocide but faces criticism over rights abuses and political repression.
