A plenary session of the Senate on Tuesday, January 26, voted to amend the electoral law to allow local leaders whose term was set to end in the coming weeks.

Following the amendment, the leaders will remain in office until elections are held for their replacements.

The amendments were tabled in the Upper Chamber by the Minister of Local Government, Anastase Shyaka.

At the moment, some of the activities of elections of local leaders have been put on hold, owing to Covid-19 that has among others restricted large gatherings- one of the major components of the exercise.

According to Shyaka, before the amendment, there was no article in the law stipulating what would happen in case an uncontrollable crisis happens, hence leaving local leadership crisis.

"Covid-19 is continually becoming severe, which hinders the elections of local leaders from taking place. The current law does not stipulate what happens in case of a force-majeure. On the other hand, you cannot have a leadership vacuum,” he explained to senators.

He added: "The amended articles stipulate that once a force-majeure occurs, the local leaders will remain in office until these challenges are put under control.”

After the passing of the amended articles, they will be published in the Official Gazette, and then afterward, the Minister of Local Government will issue a ministerial order stipulating the force-majeure in question and hence ordering that elections are put on hold until further notice.

It is expected that once the Covid-19 pandemic is controlled, another ministerial order will be issued, announcing the resumption of local elections process.

What has been done so far vis-à-vis elections?

Speaking to The New Times on Tuesday, Charles Munyaneza, the Executive Secretary of NEC explained that a lot has been done so far in regards to preparations of grassroots leaders elections.

"We had already bought all voting materials, and updated the voters’ registers across the country, and compiled a provisional list. Also, we have already received the candidatures of candidates, an exercise that we concluded on January 22,” he said.

According to Munyaneza, the provisional list of voters is made of 7.8 million people country-wide. He also mentioned that the process of elections had reached a critical stage of campaigns, which he said can’t take place with the existing Covid-19 pandemic.

Though elections are to be halted once the ministerial order is issued, he explained, there are some activities that the Electoral Commission will continue doing so as to ensure smooth elections once the exercise is given a green light.

"Because elections will happen soon or later, we will continue preparations that don’t bring us in contact with the public, Some of these activities include mobilizing volunteers that will be helping us at polling stations,” he highlighted,

Grassroots leaders – who include district mayors – have a five-year term and the current ones started theirs in 2016 and were expected to end their term in February this year. According to NEC, there are 340,000 seats in local leadership that will receive new leaders.

The posts awaiting new personnel include committees at village, cell, sector and district level (except for districts in Kigali), and members of special councils namely women and youth councils, and the council of people living with disabilities.