KIGALI - Close to Rwf 200 million is needed before authorities seal the budget needed to foot the August Presidential election bill, the Executive Secretary of the National Electoral Commission (NEC), Charles Munyaneza, said yesterday.

The forthcoming presidential elections are expected to consume a whopping Rfw 8.5 billion, a Rfw 6.3 billion increase from the Rwf 2.3bn used in the 2003 Presidential elections.

The biggest percentage of this budget will be generated from government coffers while the rest will come from donors.

Munyaneza told The New Times, yesterday, that the shortfall will not in any way threaten the preparations of the elections.

"We are not worried about it because we prepare for such deficits when putting together the budget,” he said.

According to Munyaneza, NEC received the government’s total contribution which was completed with the recent disbursement of Rfw1.9 billion from the 2010/11 budget that went into implementation effective this month.

He added that his commission was optimistic that countries that had pledged to contribute to the election budget will disburse the money in time for the elections.

"We got some pledges from some countries like Belgium, Germany and Japan and we are optimistic that they will honour their pledges in time,” he said.

NEC recently said that over 5.2million Rwandans are expected to turn up for the forthcoming presidential polls, a 1.3 million increase compared to 2003 presidential elections when 3.9 million people took part.

16,000 polling stations will be set up while 70,000 polling agents are currently undergoing training.

Four candidates have so far indicated their interest in standing for presidency in the forthcoming elections and if approved by NEC, they are expected to start campaigning on July 20 and finish on August 08, a day before Election Day.

Ends