(3 Aug 2017) Many people in Rwanda believe that this week's presidential vote will be yet another coronation for incumbent Paul Kagame, who has been in power for 23 years and won 93 percent of the votes in the last election.
Kagame has been de facto leader or president of the East African nation of 12 million people since his rebels ended its 1994 genocide.
While he remains popular for presiding over impressive economic growth, he inspires fear among some Rwandans who say he uses the powers of the state to remove genuine opponents.
The 59-year-old Kagame has already claimed victory, telling a rally in late July that the winner of the election is already known.
In the capital, Kigali, there is little hint of the coming vote.
Presidential candidates are barred from putting campaign posters in most public places, including schools and hospitals.
The electoral commission vets candidates' campaign messages, warning that their social media accounts could be blocked otherwise.
Three potential candidates for Friday's election were disqualified by the electoral commission for allegedly failing to fulfill certain requirements, including collecting enough signatures.
Two others, independent candidate Philippe Mpayimana and Frank Habineza of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, were cleared to run.
Two decades of often deadly attacks on political opponents, journalists and rights activists have created a "climate of fear" ahead of Rwanda's election, Amnesty International said in a report last month.
Habineza has called his campaign an act of "hope" despite the obvious risks.
The organising secretary of Habineza's Democratic Green Party went missing two years ago and remains unaccounted for, while his deputy was discovered in 2010 with a severed head in the southern town of Butare.
"There are many unknown prisons in this country, and many people have vanished and died there," says Charlotte Umutesi, who is supporting Habineza in this election.
"My brother disappeared for a long time and we didn't find him until much later. We need a change before it is too late" she told AP.
But Kagame seems unperturbed, seemingly enjoying the music and festive atmosphere at his own campaign rally.
Rwanda remains traumatised by the genocide, in which over 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred by Hutu extremists.
As the leader who united the country in the wake of the killings, Kagame clearly feels mandated to stay in power, and since a referendum in 2015 allowed him to keep on standing for president until 2034, the outcome of Rwanda's presidential elections may be a foregone conclusion for some time yet.
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