The National Electoral Commission has submitted the final list of 24 candidates who are vying for representing Rwanda in the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA).Speaking to The New Times, Charles Munyaneza, Executive Secretary of NEC, said that they include nine candidates from three national councils – which provided three candidates each.Those councils are namely the National Youth Council, the National Women Council, and the National Council of Persons with Disabilities.Also, he said that five political organisations provided 15 candidates – three each.The political organisations include Social Democratic Party (PSD), Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) Inkotanyi, Socialist Party (PS) Imberakuri, Democratic Green Party of Rwanda (DGPR), and Liberal Party (PL).It is from those final candidates that the Parliament (both chambers – the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate) will elect nine MPs to represent Rwanda in EALA.According to the organic law governing election of Rwandan Members of EALA published in the Official Gazette on August 29, 2022, Rwanda members of EALA originate from political organisations represented in the Parliament’s Chamber of Deputies, National Youth Council, National Women Council, and the National Council of Persons with Disabilities.Each category in which Rwanda’s representatives to EALA are elected is allocated a number of members, with political organisations accounting for six; while the three national councils get one, each.On December 05, NEC issued a provisional list of the 15 candidates from political parties, two of whom had incomplete curriculum vitae.Munyaneza said they included one whose names on his national identity card were not matching those on his degree, and another who had not yet submitted a criminal record. But, he said, all that has been cleared.Meanwhile, he said that he cannot tell the exact date when the Rwandan members of EALA will be elected, but said that it is expected to be well before December 17 as this is the time when the current EALA Assembly will conclude its term.Members of EALA are elected for a five-year term, renewable once; which means that some Rwanda EALA members stand a chance for reelection. The 4th EALA Assembly – the current one – started in 2017 and its term will end on December 17, 2022, after which the 5th EALA Assembly will begin.The Assembly members are drawn from EAC Partner States – currently seven, namely Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (newest to the bloc). Each Partner State will have nine members in the Assembly.
