PUBLIC voting for the 4th annual Primus Guma Guma Superstar talent singing competition has kicked off.

The public will determine which contestants should remain in the Bralirwa sponsored competition until a winner is picked.

Votes from the public and the judges will collectively decide who stays in the competition.  The voting for the ten contestants started last weekend to keep the public engaged, particularly with social media-driven voting methods.

During a news conference held at Bralirwa offices at Sonatubes, a team of officials from Bralirwa, together with partners from East African Promoters (EAP), Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) and Net Solutions, deliberated on the method for this year’s voting and announced the voting numbers for the contestants.

Voting will be by SMS on all the three telecom networks Tigo, MTN and Airtel; and each subscriber (simcard) is entitled to only one SMS per day in contrast to the previous years when voters were allowed unlimited SMS messages.

There is also a team of three judges who will determine the ultimate winner by the end of the competition. This year, the entire jury shall contribute 80% of total winning vote while the public will contribute 20% of the vote in contrast to last year which was 70% and 30%,  respectively. 

The split between the jury and public is aimed at ensuring transparency which was a big issue in the previous competition.

The jury also has standard criteria for choosing the winner; popularity contributes 50% of the vote, performance and vocal ability 30%, stage appearance and management 10% and discipline 10%.

The changes were made because of complaints from the public over transparency issues in the previous seasons. PWC shall audit the votes and ensure transparency of the results while Net Solutions shall be in charge of ensuring that only one vote per simcard is recorded per day and provide results.

"There will also be an elimination show in Rubavu on June 12, in which the top three contestants shall be chosen to battle it out for the Rwf2.4m grand prize while the remaining seven shall also compete in a separate category for different prizes ranging from Rwf3.5m to  Rwf500,000. Every contestant in the competition is a winner,” said Martine Gatabazi, the Marketing Manager of Bralirwa.

The contestants were allotted the following voting numbers;

Active (1)

AmaG the Black (2)

Bruce Melodie  (3)

Christopher  (4)

Dream Boys  (5)

Jay Polly  (6)

Sentore  (7)

Senderi  (8)

Teta  (9)

Young Grace  (10)