Rwanda's Kagame set for landslide win: early results

KIGALI (Reuters) - Early results on Tuesday showed that Rwandan President Paul Kagame would win re-election by a landslide, after an election campaign that rights groups and opponents said was marred by repression and violence against critics.

Preliminary results from the National Electoral Commission

showed that in 11 out of a total 30 districts Kagame had won 1,610,422 votes out of 1,734,671 votes cast.

Kagame won the last election in 2003 -- the first since the 1994 genocide -- with 95 percent of the vote.

Analysts said the easy victory for Kagame indicated by the first results was unsurprising, partly because of the economic growth and stability he has delivered during his decade in power and also because of a crackdown on rivals and critics.

Kagame's three registered rivals are weak and linked closely to his ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), they said. Three would-be candidates accused the government of preventing them from registering to contest the election.

Though land-locked and poor in resources, Rwanda is a rising star in Africa for donors and investors and Kagame has been feted as a visionary leader and African icon.