Rwanda Elections Held Amid Fixing Claims

Emma Hurd, Africa correspondent

Elections are taking place in Rwanda amid accusations that President Paul Kagame has silenced his opponents to stay in power.

Mr Kagame, credited with promoting economic growth and reconciliation since the 1994 genocide, is expected to win the vote by a landslide to extend his decade in office by another seven years.
His critics say the election has exposed growing political oppression in Rwanda.
Several opposition politicians who wanted to stand against Mr Kagame have been arrested and at least one has been killed in an apparent political assassination.

I have done nothing wrong except have a different opinion to Paul Kagame.

Politician Victoire Ingarbire, who is under house arrest 

A journalist who was critical of the government and had threatened to expose state involvement in the recent attempt on the life of a former Rwandan General in South Africa has also been murdered.
"Everybody who doesn't agree with him is either killed or jailed," opposition politician Victoire Ingarbire told Sky News at her home in Kigali where she is under house arrest.
Mrs Ingarbire, a Hutu who returned from exile to Rwanda to contest the election, is accused by the government of promoting "genocide ideology", a charge she denies.
"I have done nothing wrong except have a different opinion to Paul Kagame," she said.

The president has shrugged off the wave of accusations that have threatened to turn him from the man Tony Blair praised as a "visionary leader" into a more familiar African autocrat.

Ms Ingabire managed to speak to Sky despite being under house arrest

He said it was up to his electorate to judge his credentials as a democrat. "Wait and let the people decide," he said.
The majority of Rwanda's 10 million people do not seem to be anxious to change their leader.
The country is thriving, stable and peaceful 16 years after the genocide, when Hutu killers slaughtered more than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Mr Kagame is hugely popular after turning round Rwanda's fortunes

"He has brought us reconciliation," one man said at a rally in the town of Kayanza, where a crowd of tens of thousands of Hutus and Tutsis united to cheer on Mr Kagame.
He has also improved access to education and health care, while his tough stance on corruption has won the confidence of foreign aid donors and investors.
Progress towards democracy has lagged behind development but President Kagame said it was for his people, not the international community, to dictate the priorities in Rwanda.