Rwanda’s Kagame wins third term by a landslide

Rwanda’s incumbent leader Paul Kagame has swept to a landslide victory in the country’s presidential election according to the results showed early on Saturday.

With this development Kagame has just secured a third term in office and extended his 17 years in power.

Kagame has won international plaudits for presiding over a peaceful and rapid economic recovery in the Central African nation since the 1994 genocide.

But he has also faced mounting censure for what critics and rights groups say are widespread human rights abuses, a muzzling of independent media and suppression of political opposition.

With 80 percent of votes counted from Friday’s election, the 59-year-old former guerrilla leader had secured 98.66 percent, the National Electoral Commission’s Executive secretary Charles Munyaneza told a news conference.

Kagame said he would work to sustain economic growth in the tiny nation.