Incumbent President Paul Kagame told the world Tuesday that genocide-scarred Rwanda is "on the right path," after scoring an overwhelming election win seen as confirming support for his efforts to heal the African nation's wounds.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame and leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) addresses the nation early August 26, 2003, after the first presidential elections since the country's 1994 genocide in which 800,000 people were killed.   [Reuters]

Election officials said Kagame had 94 percent support with about half the districts reporting in Monday's presidential vote, the first since a 1994 genocide that left more than 500,000 people dead. Most victims were minority Tutsis killed by Hutu extremists.

"This victory is a foundation for the next stage of development we are entering to," Kagame told supporters early Tuesday, pumping his fist in the air. "Our victory should be a message to the outside world that Rwanda is on the right path."

Monday's election, the first in Rwanda in which there were opposing parties, was billed as a showcase of how far the country has come since the 1994 slaughter.

Electoral Commission Chairman Chrysologue Karangwa said Kagame's main competitor, Faustin Twagiramungu, had just 3.5 percent, while the third candidate, Jean-Nepomuscene Nayinzira, had slightly more than 1 percent. Unofficial final results were to be released later Tuesday.

The election was "a sign that we are developing politically," said Emmanuel Karisa, a 25-year-old university student, his thumb stained with ink from stamping it on the photograph of his candidate, one of four that appeared on the ballot.

A man wearing a poster of Rwandan President Paul Kagame and leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) stands in a cowd of tens of thousands of Rwandan celebrating the victory for their leader after winning the country's first election since the 1994 genocide, early August 26, 2003.    [Reuters]

"There was no choice in previous elections," said 73-year-old Jean-Baptiste Gakwaya, referring to the two single-party Hutu regimes that had ruled Rwanda from the time it gained independence from Belgium in 1962 until the genocide.

After the election, Kagame addressed thousands of backers and members of his Rwandan Patriotic Front gathering at Rwanda's main Amahoro Stadium, where results were posted on the electronic score board as they were read on radio and TV.

"I thank you for the confidence you have placed in me and I will not let you down," said Kagame, waving his baseball cap in salute to jubilant, dancing supporters.

Kagame is a Tutsi who led the rebels who toppled the Hutu extremists in July 1994 to end the 100-day genocide. He then led the fight against remnants of the genocidal regime who attacked the country from bases in neighboring Congo. The parliament elected him president in 2000.

Nayinzira, did not campaign; the fourth candidate, Alivera Mukabaramba, withdrew from the race Sunday, though he was on the ballot.

More than 80 percent of Rwanda's 3.9 million registered voters cast ballots at the 11,350 polling stations across the tiny central African nation of 8 million.

Most of the genocide victims were minority Tutsis, but a number of Hutu political moderates, including the country's first female prime minister, were also killed.

Kagame, who voted in Kigali, said election results will show that Rwanda has made "huge strides" in building national unity and reconciliation.

Casting his ballot, Twagiramungu, a Hutu, called the election "a very positive development and the ... basis for consolidating the democratic process in Rwanda."

"I will applaud the winner," he said.

Twagiramungu was a voice of moderation before the genocide. A former prime minister in the post-genocide government, he went into exile in 1995 after disagreements with Kagame.

"The fact that a Tutsi was elected president for the first time by Hutus, Tutsis and Twas is proof that these communities have reconciled themselves after the genocide," said Jacques Hitimana, 62, a Hutu resident of Kigali. "His (Kagame's) election is a good thing for Rwanda."

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