Although a decision on when to hold local government elections will be reached by the end of August, the National Electoral Commission (NEC) says that the budget required for the exercise has been set at Rwf3 billion. Speaking to The New Times in a telephone interview, the commission’s Executive Secretary Charles Munyaneza said that the Covid-19 pandemic has forced the elections to be postponed in the past but a final decision on when to go forward will be announced before the end of this month. “We have had several discussions and obviously, we have been following the pandemic trends but we are now at a point where we think that we can go forward with the elections at least, before the end of the year,” he said. Munyaneza explained that the elections, which were scheduled to take place in February, must take place as the uncertainty among the local leaders whose mandate was extended due to the pandemic is contributing to less productivity among some. Normally, grassroots who include Mayors down to the village level have a five-year term for a maximum of two terms. The last term kicked off in 2016 and was expected to end in February 2021. However, earlier this year, the Senate voted to amend the electoral law to allow local leaders to continue on after the outbreak of the pandemic that restricts large gatherings- one of the major components of the exercise. Before the amendment, there was no article in the law stipulating what would happen in case of such a crisis. Progress reported Munyaneza explained that so far, a lot has been done in regard to preparations for the 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 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 councils for special interest groups namely women and youth councils, and the council of people living with disabilities.
