Congratulations President Paul Kagame and Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF-Inkotanyi) on your emphatic victory. Well-done Philippe Mpayimana on coming second; you should now form a party. Tough luck to Frank Habineza; I think you should give-up the Green party leadership to someone else.

That RPF would win was an assured fact. What we didn’t know was by which percentage of the vote; so we waited for the National Electoral Commission to tell us and when they did, it was 98.66 percent for Kagame, 0.72 percent for Philippe and 0.45 percent for Frank.

Poll results for all three candidates, especially RPF’s Paul Kagame reflected what we had seen at their respective campaign rallies across the country. What however, surprised many is the fact that Independent Candidate Philippe Mpayimana polled more votes than Frank Habineza.

Granted! Juxtaposed against Kagame, both Philippe and Frank were really feather weight opponents who stood no chance against the super popular RPF candidate; so competition was always going to be on how the two contenders performed against each other.

For the RPF party, this election was also a referendum of sorts; while it renewed Kagame’s mandate through an emphatic victory, it also symbolized that the party is still highly rated among Rwandans, 23 years since assuming power. Now that is a double mandate from the electorate.

Victory for President Kagame is an opportunity to form a new government that will consolidate past gains and keep the country on its progressive track; as for the party leadership, the Chairman’s daunting task of planning for life after him, awaits them.

But what do you think of Habineza and his Green party after Friday’s polls?

Those who placed bets on who, between Habineza and Mpayimana would take second position had favored the Green Party candidate on grounds that he had better national brand recognition among voters because the party has been in existence for a few years.

Mpayimana on the other hand wasn’t only an independent candidate; he was also making his debut on the political scene; if we may use the term, he was the underdog of the three.

Yet after tallying 80 percent of the poll results, the hitherto unknown fellow was polling ahead of the otherwise outspoken Green party candidate, a development that left many analysts baffled. What factors could explain this?

First, Mpayimana was the least funded of the three candidates; his personal resources as an independent candidate cannot be compared to Habineza who was backed by his party resources; and as we all saw, children dominated most of his rallies.

A broadcast journalist friend who covered a number of Mpayimana’s campaigns told me, in many places, he would beg people to come and listen to him; where this failed, he resorted to actually going to them and having close-up conversations with them.

In a close-knit community like Rwanda, word of mouth is a major channel of marketing; it is therefore possible that those close-up interactions between voters and Mpayimana could have won him a number of believers who spread his message to others, hence his good performance!

Also, his rhetoric was more conciliatory than Habineza’s, telling Rwandans that if elected, he would continue with the great things that RPF has already achieved for the country. Such rhetoric could have connected with the Rwandans that voted for him, winning him sympathy support on basis of his respectful attitude to the national gains under the current leadership.

But perhaps the most important factor behind Mpayimana’s performance is the role of the press and the way they covered the campaigns, giving all candidates an equal platform to be heard by voters across the country.

The New Times, RBA, Igihe.com, The East African, Kigali Today to mention but a few, covered this election in a fair and balanced manner that helped the weaker candidates have their voices delivered to millions of voters they otherwise couldn’t have reached through their paltry rallies.

For instance, RBA’s editorial standard gave three minutes pieces for each candidate during bulletins; it was a tough one for reporters; where they struggled to fit everything from the RPF candidate in three minutes, they struggled even more to find content to fill three minutes for the other two candidates but they had to anyway!

Both contenders also got hosted on exclusive shows during prime time, on the national broadcaster, a platform that helped deliver their message to more people in one go, than all their campaign rallies combined; RBA truly exercised its role as a public broadcaster.

The New Times, to the surprise of its critics, gave all three candidates front page coverage both in hard print and online, throughout the campaign consequently helping give their messages prominence and reach wider audiences both at home and abroad.  

So, as we celebrate victory of the RPF candidate, we should also celebrate the role played by the local media in this democratic process for by giving all candidates an equal platform, they facilitated voters to form independent decisions in choosing who they wanted for President.

And regardless of what foreign critics say or assume, the point of ultimate importance is that on Friday August 4, 2017, Rwandans decided in a loud and clear voice that it is Paul Kagame and RPF they still want to lead the country. Congratulations!

editorial@newtimes.co.rw