26
submitted 3 months ago by Stamau123@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

KIGALI, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Rwanda's President Paul Kagame was sworn into office on Sunday for a five-year term, after a landslide win in last month's election extended his near quarter century in office.

The 66-year-old former rebel leader won the July poll with 99.18% of the vote, after eight other candidates including his most vocal critics were barred by the electoral commission.

top 5 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] dactylotheca@suppo.fi 8 points 3 months ago

I think it's interesting is that so many autocracies keep up the pretense of democratic and rules-based governance; even North Korea has elections. Same with political trials like you see in so many authoritarian regimes, from modern Russia or China to Nazi Germany – it's like autocrats need to be able to pretend to themselves that the system they run is fair and just, and that they're not just tyrants who govern with impunity and enforce rules arbitrarily.

What I don't get is why? Why bother when it's immediately obvious to everyone that it's all a sham? Why not drop the pretense, which everybody knows is just a pretense?

[-] Carmakazi@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

One, it does give some room to dismiss accusations, even if just rhetorically.

Two, when you are able to coerce your subjects to say the sky is green, the sun sets in the East, and Dear Leader won the election, its an exercise of power over them. It feeds the ego and it becomes a litmus test for the disloyal.

[-] Ransom@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 months ago

Given what happened in Rwanda 30 years ago, and given that we haven’t seen a repeat since then, I think Kagame is doing a good job. I’m not sure how I feel about him being in power for so long, but I also don’t think we’re in the best place to judge (the West) given how abysmally we failed Rwanda over the past 200 years.

[-] cyd@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

It will be interesting to see how Rwanda manages after Kagame leaves the scene. In the past, he has styled himself after Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, but Lee stepped down and left behind a well functioning civil service and a second generation of political leaders who weren't hacks. Kagame seems to be avoiding talk about succession plans, which is not a good sign.

[-] MediaBiasFactChecker@lemmy.world -5 points 3 months ago

Reuters - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)Information for Reuters:

MBFC: Least Biased - Credibility: High - Factual Reporting: Very High - United Kingdom
Wikipedia about this source

Search topics on Ground.Newshttps://www.reuters.com/world/africa/rwandas-president-kagame-sworn-into-office-2024-08-11/
Media Bias Fact Check | bot support

this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2024
26 points (100.0% liked)

World News

39040 readers
1127 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS