The National Electoral Commission (NEC) has postponed elections to fill the Advisory Council positions in the City of Kigali, citing surging cases of Covid-19. The elections were slated to take place on December 30, this year. According to a statement released on Wednesday by NEC, submission of candidatures were also canceled. The new dates will be communicated in the near future, it said. Charles Munyaneza, the Executive Secretary of the National Electoral Commission (NEC), said the postponed elections were to be conducted in two levels. “The first was to vote for two people in the advisory council in Nyarugenge District, who will then join the city council, the city was also going to vote for a Vice Mayor in Charge of Social Affairs” he said. Munyaneza added that the Commission will keep assessing the condition and they will announce a date on when the elections will happen. Due to reforms passed in 2019, local government elections did not happen in the City of Kigali because there were no councilors to vote . However, they will be held in 2024 when the local leaders complete their 5-year term which started in 2019. The local government elections for the remaining 27 districts of the country were successfully completed on November 26. In recent days, the government has tightened Covid-19 preventive measures following the outbreak of the Omicron variant of coronavirus, which is said to spread faster than the Delta variant.
