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![Rwandan President Cruising to Re-election Win]()
Early voting indicates Rwanda President Paul Kagame (pictured) will win re-election to a seven-year term in the country's second vote since the 1994 genocide that saw more than 500,000 people killed.
But this is a glass half-full, half-empty situation in Rwanda, where observers are wondering whether the election, while free, is really fair.
The democratic exercise of the national vote is to be cheered, but international election observers have decried pre-election violence that is being blamed on Kagame supporters.
At the same time, critics of Kagame's government say they haven't been permitted to participate in the election.
As he cast his vote with his wife in Rwanda's capital of Kigali, Kagame denied an election crackdown on political opponents, saying, "There are some people who choose to see problems where there are not."
Kagame has earned plaudits for promoting women to new leadership roles and increasing farm production. He has also made major inroads in Rwanda's economic growth, where household incomes have increased three-fold.
Still, Kagame's cronies have been accused of threatening his opponents and closing newspapers critical of his rule.
The three challengers to Kagame's presidency were partners in the coalition government that formed after the genocide.
Coming out of the 1994 nightmare, it may take a strong hand in central government, like that provided by Kagame, to keep control of the volatile situation there. But it would be nice if he could relax his tight-fisted rule to allow more democratic institutions to grow once his re-election is secured.
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