Rwandans vote in election set to extend Kagame's 30-year rule
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00:00In Kigali, long lines outside polling stations from the moment they opened.
00:05Nine million Rwandans called to the ballot box Monday for presidential and legislative elections.
00:11Enthusiasm high, even though the outcome appeared to be a foregone conclusion.
00:17I know who I'll vote for. This person is in my heart.
00:20It'll be someone who's already done a lot for us and helped our development.
00:23Just like in Rwanda's last election, incumbent Paul Kagame is facing the independent candidate
00:31Philippe Mpaemana and the leader of the country's one authorized opposition party,
00:36Frank Habineza, who says he thinks the country has changed since then.
00:40The people of Rwanda have really matured politically. They received us happily.
00:44So you will see that the country has grown, developed democratically.
00:49It's so much different from 2017.
00:52That sentiment, though, is likely wishful thinking.
00:55In 2017, Kagame won with nearly 99% of the vote.
00:59Now 66, he's been the country's de facto leader since the end of the 1994 genocide.
01:05Then the savior of Rwanda's Tutsi population, he remains extremely popular.
01:10In a country where 65% of citizens are under 30, many have never known another president.
01:17He's a loved man. He's everything for everyone else.
01:22But there is a darker side.
01:24Kagame is accused of silencing his critics.
01:27Amnesty International has denounced threats, arbitrary detentions, even murders and forced disappearances.
01:34During the campaign, posters of the president in his party's colors have dominated the countryside,
01:40his rivals largely invisible.
01:43Kagame is thus likely to stay in power for a fourth term.
01:47Provisional results are due on July 20th, one week before the final tallies are announced.