Does Paul Kagame really need to run from town to town like this in order to convince voters to vote for him for president and for his Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) legislative candidates in the elections on July 15? In view of the last election, it's not a matter of convincing undecided voters who could tip the balance in the right direction: In 2017, Kagame, the president of a country under the tight control of its security services, came close to unanimity, with 98.63% of the vote and a turnout rate of 98.15%. No one imagines a different scenario this time.

The huge crowds of Rwandans throughout his journey have at least made it possible for him to observe that the RPF is still an enormous political trawler that can catch all, or almost all, of the country's electorate (around 9 million) in its nets. "But that's no guarantee of popularity. It's not genuine," warned a political sociologist who preferred to remain anonymous. "Participation is a social norm: you have to go so as not to be noticed or frowned upon by the RPF, which controls the country."

Kagame, 66, is crossing the country like a top general on an inspection tour of the barracks to make sure that everything is in working order. Could this be a holdover from his rebel past? At the end of the 1980s, he was one of the main creators of the RPF, then a military organization, in the Ugandan maquis where he lived in exile. It was he, a tall, austere man, who led the troops to Kigali to put an end to the 1994 "Hutu Power" genocide against 800,000 Tutsis, members of his community. He gradually established himself at the head of the country and ultimately conquered the presidency in 2000, never to relinquish it.

At the start of this summer, he has long since put away his general-in-chief's uniform. On the stages of his rallies, he now displays his slender, ascetic silhouette in a polo shirt bearing his nickname ("Chairman"), multi-pocket trekking pants and a cap on his head. But the same fervor inhabits this leader, who still has the air of a soldier-monk; there is still the same determination and the same lack of doubt about his mission. "It's so easy to lead the Rwandans," he exclaimed on July 5 at a campaign rally held in the Kayonza district on the Tanzanian border, "because obstacles are quickly overcome, especially as the RPF makes our task easier by eliminating anything that could become an obstacle."

The all-powerful Rwandan president did not specify whether he sees Victoire Ingabire and Diane Rwigara as "eliminated obstacles." These two former opponents were ruthlessly disqualified from the presidential race. Ingabire was disqualified by the High Court, which decided in March not to restore her civil rights. She had been deprived of them when, in 2015, she was sentenced – for political reasons, according to human rights organizations – to 15 years' imprisonment for "genocide denial." She was released in 2018 by presidential order. As for Rwigara, her candidacy was rejected by the electoral commission due to an incomplete file. Rwigara, who has been critical of the Kagame regime, had already not been authorized to run in 2017. She was imprisoned "for inciting insurrection and promoting sectarianism," then acquitted.

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