The Hindu : Rwandans vote in presidential polls

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 26, 2003

International

International

Rwandans vote in presidential polls

KIGALI (RWANDA) AUG. 25 . Thousands of Rwandans turned up early on Monday to vote in the first multiparty presidential election after a vigorous campaign of healing the wounds from the 1994 genocide.

Reports of harassment of Opposition supporters by security forces marred the otherwise peaceful campaign.

In the capital Kigali, where shops were closed and the streets were mostly empty, voters clutching identity cards and radios lined up to cast their votes. For many, it was a day like none other.

"There was no choice in previous elections," said an elderly man, referring to the two single-party Hutu regimes that had ruled Rwanda from independence in 1962 to the genocide.

Some 3.9 million voters were eligible to cast ballots in 11,350 polling stations across the tiny central African nation of rolling green hills and extinct volcanoes.

First results are expected early on Tuesday, and the winner will be announced on Wednesday, said Chrysologue Karangwa, head of the National Electoral Commission.

The election was billed as a showcase of how far the country has come in the nine years since a regime of extremists from the Hutu majority orchestrated the slaughter of more than half a million people, mostly minority Tutsis.

But as people lined up to vote, there was genuine concern about everyday issues like grinding poverty and persistent unemployment. The genocide not only shattered Rwanda's society, but it also wrecked the struggling economy.

Supporters of the President, Paul Kagame, and the leading Opposition candidate, Faustin Twagiramungu, all agree that the winner needs to create more jobs, provide more access to education and raise the incomes of the more than 60 per cent of Rwanda's 8.2 million people living on less than $1 a day.

"We now have peace and security," said Emmanuelle Bijogo, a 20-year-old in Kigali. Now "the Government needs to create more jobs for people."

Mr. Kagame, a minority Tutsi, led the rebels who in 1994 toppled a regime of extremist Hutus. As Vice-President and Defence Minister, he then led the fight against remnants of the genocidal regime who attacked the country from bases in neighbouring Congo. At the same time, the Government rebuilt schools and hospitals, nursed the economy back to health and started the process of reconciliation.

The National Unity Parliament elected him President in 2000 after the resignation of the previous President.

Mr. Kagame's record has made him popular among Rwandans. Backed by seven of the country's nine recognised political parties, he is expected to win the election.

Though officials deny harassing Opposition supporters, European Union observers and Western diplomats say at least some of the claims are true.

After voting, Mr. Kagame called the election "a big democratic step" and said it was proof that "ethnicity is on the way to being a thing of the past."

— AP

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