The National Electoral Commission (NEC) has had to conduct by-elections in some parts of the country due to irregularities that occurred during the local government elections, according to Charles Munyaneza, the commission’s Executive Secretary. The local government elections kicked off on October 19 starting with elections at the village level. Munyaneza said that the elections were repeated in six villages of Kayonza, Nyagatare, Nyaruguru, Gicumbi districts following anomalies that were reported in the previous exercise. “According to the law when we receive legitimate complaints we have to do the elections again, and that is what we did in those villages the same day of elections or the next day,” “The cases we found were inappropriate behaviors from voters or candidates, faults committed by the volunteer polling agents, or voting for someone who was not present or did not campaign, among others,” he said. Frank Rwigamba, in charge of elections in the Eastern province, said that the multiple cases they received were due to the fact that most voters did not understand the laws regarding elections. “Most issues we received complaints for were personal, like conflicts between voters and candidates and later claiming there were issues in the election process,” he said. Rwigamba added they are currently conducting campaigns to teach and explain the electoral laws to people in order to avoid a repeat of these issues in the future. So far, elections of committees at village and cell levels have been concluded and those elected at the cell will, on November 6, elect from amongst themselves committees at sector level with a similar exercise going to the district level on November 9. District executive committees include mayors and vice mayors. These will be followed by the elections of committee of special interest groups including women the youth and people with disabilities at the provincial and after, the national level. The announcement of the results is slated for November 26, and the elected leaders will start their term in February 2022.
