The National Electoral Commission (NEC) has announced that by-elections for district councillors and executive committees to fill vacant positions in Huye, Rusizi, and Gatsibo districts will take place on May 8. ALSO READ: Rusizi vice mayor, three district councilors resign The preparation of the upcoming elections took place between April 11 and 16. The deadline for submitting and receiving candidacies for councillors in the three districts is slated for April 21. According to NEC, by-elections in Rusizi and Gatsibo districts will make sure that 30 per cent of councilors are female. Female members of the council constituting at least 30 per cent of all district council members are elected through indirect and secret ballot by the members of the council bureau of sectors constituting the district and members of the executive committee of the National Women Council at the district and sector levels, according to electoral law. The provisionally approved candidacies will be announced on April 22 and final candidacies on April 29. The election campaigns are scheduled for May 1 to May 8. Before the campaigns, NEC said a meeting on the guidelines with candidates is planned on April 30. The elections for the three district councilors and elections to fill a vacant position in Rusizi District's Executive Committee will take place on May 8 and results will be announced on the same day. Who will be replaced? The process of electing mayors and vice mayors is typically preceded by the election of district councillors. ALSO READ: NEC postpones by-elections for Rubavu councillors, mayor In this case, the by-elections will not only fill the district councilors' positions in Rusizi District but also the Vice Mayor in Charge of Economic Development in the district who was a member of the executive committee- The Vice Mayor of Rusizi District in Charge of Economic Development, Ndagijimana Louis Munyemanzi, in April, resigned from his post, and three other district councilors, citing “personal reasons”. Other district councilors who resigned from their responsibilities are Joséphine Mukarugwiza, Head of the Social Affairs Commission, Jean Damascène Habiyakare, the head of the District Council Audit Committee, and Giovani Fidele Kwizera, the vice president of Rusizi District Council. The resignations followed another by Beatrice Uwumukiza who was the head of Rusizi District Council. She resigned after reportedly having a misunderstanding with the district’s mayor, Anicet Kibiriga, in a case linked to the commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Kamembe and Mururu sectors, and the Genocide memorial site in Nyarushishi village, Nkungu sector. Consolation Tuyishime, the councilor to be replaced in Huye District, resigned in February after realizing that his family had concealed information about the whereabouts of bodies of victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. District officials said 2,073 bodies of Genocide victims have so far been discovered under a house and a field in the area.
