Rwandans on Monday voted in a presidential election as President Paul Kagame seeks to extend stay in power beyond three decades.

Voting started across the country in the early hours of Monday, and results are expected to start trickling in by evening.

About 9.5 million registered voters among the 14 million Rwanda population would cast their votes to elect a president, according to Rwanda’s electoral commission.

Mr Kagame, 66, who has been president for 24 years since he assumed office in 2000, is a major contender in the race, featuring two other fringe candidates.

With the disqualification of six major challengers before the election, Mr Kagame faces two opposition candidates: Frank Habineza and Philippe Mpayimana.

The president is widely expected to defeat Messrs Habineza and Mpayimana, who stood against him in the 2017 election, in which Mr Kagame secured nearly 99 per cent of votes.

A victory for Mr Kagame would see him lead Rwanda for another seven years, bringing his stay in power to over three decades.

Mr Kagame would join the ranks of Africa’s sit-tight leaders, such as Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Paul Biya of Cameroon, and Ali Bongo of Gabon, recently ousted by a military junta.

While Mr Kagame is lauded for spearheading Rwanda’s economic recovery and growth following the 1994 genocide, which claimed over 800,000 lives, he has faced criticism for his repression of political opposition and alleged human rights abuses.