BUTARO, Rwanda -- His main opponent has two cars, a handful of campaign posters and several thousand supporters. But Rwandan President Paul Kagame knows how to rally -- bring on the dancers, helicopters, armed guard and tell people how to vote.

There is less than a week to go before Rwanda holds its first presidential election since the 1994 genocide, the country's first ever multi-party poll. There are four candidates, but as far as campaigning goes, the tiny central African country is witnessing a one-man show.

Faustin Twagiramungu, a former prime minister from the Hutu majority, is a credible threat and his rallies draw a few thousand who clap and cheer and listen to his pleas for Rwandans to ignore what he says is harassment from Kagame's RPF Party and vote for him.

Critics say Rwandans have been scared into supporting the RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front) which has dominated the country since the genocide in which extremist Hutus killed around 800,000 minority Tutsis and Hutus who opposed their ideas of Hutu-power.

Kagame's rallies do look stage managed. On Sunday, around 35,000 congregated in a field in the remote northern hills, miles from any main road in a region with no electricity, waving RPF flags, wearing Kagame T-shirts and holding campaign umbrellas.

Soldiers frisked those attending -- women, men and children in ragged clothes who were brought from their mud huts and farms hours before to wait for the man the RPF wants them to vote for.

Kagame arrived by helicopter, whisked from his landing site by a convoy of jeeps which brought him to a platform decked in pictures of his smiling face and the RPF red white and blue.

Bodyguards in sunglasses and bomber jackets kept the crowd behind a specially erected wooden barrier, dancers danced, drummers drummed, the crowd was led in chants of "Our old man, we will vote for him" broadcast by loudspeakers. -------------Kagame Confident--------------

Kagame, a thin tall man of 45, looked relaxed, clapping his hands stiffly to the music but waving warmly at the people assembled to see him. He apologized for missing an earlier scheduled rally, promised the crowd goats and cows and said he was confident of winning the vote.

Well might he be. Analysts say Monday's ballot is all but decided -- the RPF has been out in force, recruiting supporters for months, using its relatively fat wallet to put other campaigns to shame.

On Saturday, Twagiramungu held a rally in a main town in the northeast. Around 2,000 people came to watch, a few goats wandered round the half empty stadium. He says his supporters are harassed, and few people in Rwanda will openly admit to backing him, Reuters reported.

Essentially, what he and Kagame say at their rallies is similar. Both say it is time for Rwanda to put ethnicity behind it, to end the bad politics that have led to mass killings of Hutus and Tutsis since independence, and reduce the deep poverty of the rural population.

Veiled references in their speeches are clear. Neither mentions names, but each accuses the other of misinterpreting the past and heightening ethnic divisions. Two other candidates are seen as political tourists, campaigning little and criticizing Kagame even less.

In the past nine years, Kagame has delivered on many of the RPF's promises. Guns have been silenced, education is on the increase, the economy, devastated by the genocide, is growing well. All the other candidates are relative unknowns.

Twagiramungu has been accused by the RPF of telling Hutus to wake up, not to allow Tutsis to subdue them again. Some Tutsis, who make up less than 15 percent of the population, are scared that the secret ballot will lead to a surprise loss for Kagame.

But if the numbers attending the respective rallies is anything to go by, Kagame's win is not in doubt. Analysts may question his democratic credentials, but even at Twagiramungu's rallies people are loath to admit their support for anyone else.

"I hope this election goes smoothly and I can vote for someone who has done good things for this country," said Jean-Marie Gatabazu, a young man who came to listen to Twagiramungu on Saturday. "But I have made up my mind. I want to vote for Kagame because what he says is what he does."