Yesterday's presidential election in Rwanda, the first since the 1994 genocide, was going ahead calmly and without incident, according to the head of a team of European Union observers following the vote.

Asked shortly before midday how voting was going, the EU's Colette Flesch said she was "not aware of any incidents" marring the poll.

"Everything we've seen in Kigali has gone ahead in a calm and orderly fashion.

There's no problem. The voting material is in place", said Flesch, a European parliamentarian and former foreign affairs minister of Luxemburg.

Yesterday's poll is the first multi-party presidential election in Rwanda since this tiny central African country gained independence from Belgium in 1962, and the first time Rwandans have voted since the 1994 genocide which claimed the lives of up to one-million Tutsis and moderate Hutus opposed to the violence.

Asked about allegations that opposition supporters were being intimidated on polling day, Flesch said she had not met anyone who had complained about such practices.

Last week, Flesch had announced that a "supporter" of opposition candidate Faustin Twagiramangu had been "murdered" one week earlier in northern Rwanda by unknown individuals, and said her assessment of the campaign period was "mitigated".

"We also have reports about threats and harassments", she had said then.

Incumbent President Paul Kagame, head of the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and the frontrunner in the poll, denied that anyone had been killed during campaigning.

The main challenger to Kagame, who is also the leader of the former Tutsi rebel movement, which fought to end the slaughter in 1994, is former Prime Minister Twagiramungu, a moderate Hutu.

A third minor candidate, Jean-Nepomuscene Nayinzira, is also running.

The only woman candidate, Alivera Mukabaramba, pulled out of the election on Sunday, throwing her weight behind Kagame.

The EU has deployed around 70 observers throughout Rwanda for the historic vote. – Sapa-AFP.