More than 95 per cent of eligible voters across the country participated in yesterday’s grassroots polls, the National Electoral Commission (NEC) has said.

A total of more than 76, 000 local leaders were elected in all the country’s 14,837 villages (imidugudu), including members of village councils and women and youth leaders. Also elected yesterday were some cell councilors as well as members of the executive committees for persons with disabilities at the cell level.

Video: 2016 Local Government Elections. Source: The New Times/YouTube

"The turn-out has been very impressive,” Charles Munyaneza, the executive secretary, NEC, told The New Times last evening.

More than 6.3 million Rwandans – about half the population – were eligible to vote.

"The polls were conducted in peace with voters calmly lining up behind their preferred candidates,” he added.

Munyaneza also said yesterday’s elections returned highly qualified local leaders, adding that some newly elected village councilors are either Masters or Bachelors degree holders. A primary school certificate is the minimum requirement for a village leader. Five people constitute the council at the village (umudugudu) level.

The NEC official also praised the level of competitiveness observed during the elections, citing a case in a village in Murundi Sector in Kayonza District, Eastern Province where a raffle was held to decide the winner between two men who were vying for the post of village chair, after the two had tied on three occasions.

"People lined up behind the two candidates three times, each time ending in a tie, and a decision was taken to use lottery to end the stalemate, that’s how competitive these elections are,” he said.

In yesterday’s polls, voters in each village also elected three people –at least two of them women – who joined representatives of other villages to constitute the cell council, who will subsequently elect amongst themselves those to constitute the council at the sector level.

Today, according to electoral officials, three more people will be elected from each cell (the second lowest administrative entity above the village level) to complete the council at the cell level. According to the law, the three will be picked by nursery schools, primary schools and the business community in each cell – one apiece.

Yesterday, only seven out of nine members of the village youth committee (grassroots National Youth Council structures) were elected, with the other two due to be picked from secondary schools and institutions of higher learning on February 12.

However, there are concerns that in some cases this might not be practical since most villages do not have a secondary school, let alone a tertiary institution.

The local government elections, which will climax on March 4, will see over 274,000 leaders elected across the country, including representatives of special interest groups; the youth, women and persons living with disabilities.

Elections continue today and the next few days through electoral colleges at various levels, while all voters are expected to return to the polls on February 22 to vote for district counselors in a secret ballot.

It is these district councils and members of sector councils in respective districts that will constitute the electoral colleges to pick the mayor and the two vice mayors for each of the 30 districts countrywide on February 27, as well as the City of Kigali mayor and his or her two deputies on March 2.

The eventual mayors and vice mayors will first be elected to district councils – alongside other councilors – through universal suffrage.

Aspirants for the position of district councilor are currently on the campaign trail.

"We are witnessing a very critical exercise, from what we have observed so far, the country will have a very strong team of local leaders for the next five years,” Munyaneza said.

Rwanda has 30 districts, 416 sectors, 2,148 cells and 14,837 villages.

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