Rwanda's Supreme Court has rejected an opposition call to annul the country's first multiparty polls since the 1994 genocide, clearing the way for President Paul Kagame to be officially declared victor.
The court said the petition by main opposition candidate Mr Faustin Twagiramungu lacked credible evidence to support his claims of intimidation and vote rigging in the August presidential poll that Mr Kagame won with 95 per cent of the vote.
"The petition is not backed by any evidence to support the accusations. We therefore dismiss this petition," Judge Mugyenzi Louis Marie said.
The vote was Rwanda's first presidential poll since the genocide in which extremists from the Hutu majority butchered an estimated 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Mr Twagiramungu, a moderate Hutu, took 3.6 per cent of the vote in the polls, widely regarded as a test of democracy in the tiny central African country of eight million. The 58-year-old has repeatedly accused the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) of intimidating voters into choosing Mr Kagame - a charge Mr Kagame has denied.
European Union observers said the election did not entirely meet free and fair standards, although it was an important step toward democracy. Rwandan officials dismissed the EU report, saying it was one-sided.
The court ruling looks likely to clear Mr Kagame, a Tutsi, to be declared the election winner. The Supreme Court is due to endorse the poll results later today and Mr Kagame is expected to be sworn in as president on September 12th.