Senators on Wednesday passed the draft organic law governing elections, scrapping the use of the voter’s card. The senators’ endorsement of the bill has completed the parliamentary process to enact the law after the Chamber of Deputies passed it last week. In the draft law, the Government had proposed to scrap the use of voters cards during elections to maximise efficiency, and improve service delivery by leveraging on the country’s gains in Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Introducing the Bill on Wednesday, Anastase Shyaka, the Minister for Local Government, told senators that one of the reasons why amendments have been made to the electoral law is to leverage technology. He said that identifying voters by looking at their ID cards will be enough for them to cast their votes as opposed to the current system where voters cards are checked. “We have always used a voter’s card to vote but in line with commitment to smart elections, it looks like the voter’s card is a needless burden. The card doesn’t add anything on the documentation we need in order to vote given that the Rwandan National Identity Card is good enough,” he told senators. The Executive Secretary of the National Electoral Commission (NEC), Charles Munyaneza, revealed to The New Times that the use of voters cards during elections was costly for nothing because people carrying their ID cards were already able to vote. He said that scrapping the use of voters cards will save the Government about Rwf200 million that would be spent in all elections such as presidential or parliamentary elections. The money is normally spent on printing voter’s cards and distributing them, he said. “It’s one of the reasons we are scrapping this. It was an unnecessary burden on the treasury,” Munyaneza said. The passing of the electoral law required the endorsement of both chambers of Parliament because it’s an organic law. The law was also amended to accommodate forthcoming changes for the governance of the City of Kigali, which will see the latter’s three districts lose their District Councils and Executive Committees. “The main reason is based on the current development of technology in our country and the need to have a better governed capital city,” Shyaka told senators. A government bill, which awaits Parliament’s approval, seeks to scrap legal personality for all the three districts of the City of Kigali and make the latter the only office that decides what is done in all areas of the capital. Once the bill is enacted into law, all decisions concerning the City of Kigali will be made at the City hall. editor@newtimesrwanda.com
