Rwandans lined up before dawn to vote in the central African nation's second presidential election since the 1994 genocide and incumbent Paul Kagame was poised to win in a landslide.
Analysts said Rwanda's electorate was expected to vote overwhelmingly for Mr Kagame, partly because of the growth and stability he has delivered during his decade in power and also because of a crackdown on rivals and critics.
Human rights groups said the election campaign was marred by repression and violence against Mr Kagame's critics. Analysts said his three registered rivals are weak and linked closely to his ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front.
Despite being landlocked and resource-poor, Rwanda is seen as a rising star in Africa for donors and investors and Mr Kagame has been feted as a visionary leader and African icon.
Mr Kagame assumed the presidency in 2000 but has been in de facto power since his rebel army swept to power and ended the slaughter of 800,000 ethnic Tutsi and moderate Hutu in 1994. The genocide was spawned, in part, by the surge of radical ethnic politics that followed the birth of multiparty democracy in the central African country in the early 1990s.
Justin Inzabimana, an RPF election observer, said people arrived long before the polls opened across the country and described the event as quiet and orderly. Other observers also reported that polling stations were peaceful.
Some 5.2 million Rwandans were eligible to vote the election is expected to be more transparent than a legislative vote in 2008 after the introduction of a revised electoral code.
But human rights advocates and some analysts bemoaned what they saw as a forbidding atmosphere for democratic expression.
"The political environment ahead of today's presidential election has been riddled by a series of worrying actions taken by the government of Rwanda, which appear to be attempts to restrict the freedom of expression, free press and association," Ndung'u Wainaina, executive secretary of the International Centre for Policy and Conflict, said in a statement.
The polls close this afternoon. Results will be posted outside all polling stations with a preliminary tally due by Wednesday at the latest.
Reuters