Rwandans went to the polls on Friday in an election that was widely expected to extend the long rule of President Paul Kagame, who has guided the country with a steady hand following a genocide two decades ago.
Mr. Kagame appears to be hugely popular at home and has been widely praised abroad for bringing stability to his traumatized country after the Hutu-Tutsi genocide that left hundreds of thousands dead, but there is no viable opposition and dissenting views are frequently silenced.
Victory would allow him to keep power until 2024 and, under recent changes to the Constitution, give him the option to run for two more five-year terms after that, although he has suggested that he will not run again.
Mr. Kagame, sometimes described by his admirers as the African version of Lee Kuan Yew, the architect of modern Singapore, received more than 90 percent of the vote in Rwanda’s past two elections, and virtually unanimous support in the referendum two years ago that allowed him to run for a third time.
Only two opposition candidates — Frank Habineza of the Green Party and the independent Philippe Mpayimana, a former journalist — are running against him this time, but neither was seen as a significant threat, and a third challenger, Diane Rwigara, who had been considered potentially Mr. Kagame’s strongest opponent, was disqualified in July.
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