The National Electoral Commission (NEC) has kicked off preparations for this year’s parliamentary elections due in September, the executive secretary Charles Munyaneza said.

In a recent interview with The New Times, Munyaneza said though the exact date is yet to be determined preparation of the voters register is already underway.

"We are in the process of preparing regulations which are usually more detailed than the law itself, providing lots of information to both the voters and potential candidates. We are preparing the voters’ register which should be ready soon after the Genocide commemoration week in April,” he said.

Munyaneza said that updating the register will involve going to villages and all Rwandan embassies abroad to register new voters.

Every year, new voters are estimated at 200,000, according to NEC.

"We will also obviously have to remove those who passed away and make sure that those who have moved from one location to another are also able to vote. We do expect approximately 7.1 million voters this year. The number of people continues to rise because of first time voters,” he said.

Last year, about 6.1million voters participated in presidential elections.

Munyaneza also said that, besides civic education, plans for purchase of electoral materials are in the pipeline with the materials expected to be ready by the end of July.

"We have already drawn the election material procurement plan and, in the near future, we will begin the procurement process. We have some materials but we, of course, have some others that need to be bought and by the end of July, everything will be here,” he said.

See full interview HERE