If you don't understand how a leader can win a landslide victory with more than 99 percent of the vote, you don't understand Rwanda.
President Paul Kagame will serve a new term after winning 99.15 percent of the 7,160,864 votes cast in the July 15 presidential election. Voter turnout was 98 percent.
To understand the choices Rwandans made at the ballot box, it is necessary to understand where Rwanda stands today in relation to its past.
In the past, per capita annual income was barely $130, but today it is almost $1,000. Life expectancy has increased from 40 years to 67. Today, 83% of Rwandans are literate, 91% of women give birth in health facilities, and 77% of households have access to electricity. Children receive free primary and secondary education in public schools, and farmers can access subsidized fertilizers.
Kagame and the ruling party, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), are universally acknowledged as the architects of this progress. Their vision is of a developed Rwanda with first-class infrastructure, high standards of living and a social welfare system that cares for the most vulnerable.
Rwanda's prosperity and unity have been a long time in the making.
Belgium's colonial policy of “divide and rule” led to the exile in 1959 of tens of thousands of people, mainly Tutsis, fleeing violence driven by a Hutu supremacist ideology supported by both the Church and the colonial state.
Rwanda's two post-independence governments, first headed by Gregoire Kayibanda and then by Major General Juvenal Habyarimana, did little to enhance national unity and development.
Both administrations were characterized by explicit discrimination against a sector of citizens, a romanticization of subsistence agriculture, corruption, insularity and a general lack of economic development.
Worse still was the denial of citizenship to Rwandans who had fled state violence. Refusing to allow the refugees to return, President Habyarimana remarked: “Where would we put them? Rwanda is like a glass full of water.” As a result, the refugees, under the RPF flag, entered Rwanda by force on 1 October 1990.
Led by Kagame, the RPF defeated the Habyarimana regime and halted the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis. Once in power, Kagame, the RPF and their coalition partners began rebuilding the nation.
By 2003, when the first post-genocide elections were held, gross domestic product (GDP) had reached $2.1 billion, up from $753 million in 1994. A transitional justice process was underway and Rwandans were slowly learning to live together. Kagame won those elections with 95 percent of the vote.
He then won subsequent elections in 2010 and 2017 by even larger margins.
While some foreign observers acknowledge the change Kagame has brought about, they doubt his popularity and criticise the exclusion of certain Western media outlets from the election. To these critics I ask: should Rwanda apply electoral laws selectively?
Victoire Ingabire, one of Paul Kagame's leading critics, was caught up in a law that bars those sentenced to more than six months in prison from running for office. In 2013, she was convicted by the Supreme Court of conspiracy to provoke an insurrection and genocide denial and sentenced to eight years in prison.
Ingabire was not the only candidate to be denied the opportunity to stand in the presidential election. Six other potential candidates – Herman Manirareba, Innocent Hakizimana, Fred Sekikubo Barafinda, Thomas Habimana, Diane Rwigara and Jean Mbanda – were denied the opportunity to stand for election for failing to submit the necessary electoral documentation to the National Electoral Commission on time.
Even if they had shown up, the results would probably not have changed. Rwandans' trust in Kagame and the RPF remains strong.
The most recent election results are a response to the cynicism, pessimism and, dare I say, racism that seems to surround African politics. Through these polls, Rwandans have rejected two dominant narratives: that African leaders cannot meet the expectations of their people and that longevity in political leadership is always a bad thing.
The biggest challenge Kagame and the RPF will face in the next five years is to deliver on their own development agenda. They have promised Rwandans more prosperity and, with a generation born after 1994 entering the workforce, reducing youth unemployment will be crucial.
Generation Z is demanding the well-paying jobs and ever-increasing living standards promised by the RPF. Creating an economy that keeps young Rwandans engaged will be Kagame’s biggest task, but Rwandans are confident he is up to the task.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of Al Jazeera.
