Members of sector advisory councils in all districts, executive committees for special interest groups and representatives of the private sector will on Tuesday, November 16 elect members of the District Advisory Council. The elections will be held in all but three districts that make up the City of Kigali, whose councils were dissolved following the reforms in the city structure. The exercise is part of an ongoing local government elections that started in late October. Eight councillors will be elected in each district, and they will add up to five women elected last weekend, three councillors representing special interest groups and the representative of the private sector, all making up 17 members of the district advisory council. According to the National Electoral Commission (NEC), 903 people have submitted their candidatures for these positions, from which only 216 will be elected nationwide. In an exclusive interview, Charles Munyaneza, the Executive Secretary of NEC said that the general councillors’ election was pushed to this day because elections had to be conducted in phases. “To adhere to the Covid-19 measures, we had to conduct process in phases that is why another batch is being elected only two days after others were voted, doing it at the same time would lead to gathering more people in the same place, which is not recommendable during these times,” he said. After this exercise, the elected councillors in each district will select the Executive Committee from themselves on Saturday, November 19. However, elections for the Executive Committees of special interest groups (women, youth and people with disabilities) will proceed to the provincial level and these are slated on November 22. The same exercise will proceed to the national level on November 23.
