The National Electoral Commission (NEC) has called on the media to report more on the ongoing countrywide campaigns for local leaders.

Rwandans will, on Monday February 22, vote district councillors who will go on to vie for Mayoral seats.

Rwanda has 30 districts each headed by a Mayor. The City of Kigali is also run by a mayor.

According to Olive Kansanga, the election management specialist at NEC, a lot is being done to create awareness of the polls, and the campaigns are going on well.

"NEC held a meeting with candidates on February 5, and we drafted campaign programmes for each candidate. I can surely confirm that the campaigns have been going on well, and the turn-up of the public is big enough in various campaigning sites,” Kansaga said, adding that most of the campaigns happen in the afternoons.

"However, I would say that the media has not been involved in the campaigns to make the process visible,” Kansaga added.

Call to intensify campaigns

In an interview with The New Times, Eduoard Munyamaliza, the spokesperson of Rwanda Civil Society Platform, said those vying for positions need to intensify their campaigns.

"According to our observation, those whose candidatures were approved to run for councillorship are not vigorously campaigning as we expected them to be,” said Munyamariza, adding that he has seen a few posters bearing candidates’ photos plastered on walls and on vehicles and that is it.

He said the previous local government elections in 2011 were much more active.

"The civic education this time may probably not have been enough, to inform the public and there is not a lot being discussed about local government elections,” he added.

All citizens above 18 years will be expected to vote through secret ballot and campaigns are being done at the sector level because the contestants will be representing their respective sectors.

It is from these district councilors that on February 27 district executive committees will be elected, an exercise that will produce new district mayors and vice mayors in the February 27 vote.

There are more than 2,000 candidates currently campaigning for 832 district council seats. The campaigns started on February 6 and will end on February 21, according to the National Electoral Commission (NEC).

"I have personally observed four of the candidates campaigning at the district council level where they are being facilitated by the local government and NEC staff,” Munyamaliza reiterated.

There are 2,312 polling centres and 16,126 polling stations to be used during the polls across the country according to NEC.

Reaching out to electorate

Munyamaliza said for the campaigns to be vibrant and pull a big number of candidates, it will depend on how intense the sensitisation has been, especially for the electorate.

"For instance, I saw serious campaigns, last week, during elections for university representatives to grassroots level. I saw rallies, and groups of peoples behind their candidates, distributing pamphlets here and there. People were using every means possible to entice the electorate,” he said.

Kansanga pointed out that claims of non-vibrant campaigns would not affect voter turnout were unfounded.

Instead, she believes that the turn out will increase as compared to five years ago when the last district council polls took place.

"It is not true to highlight that the public awareness is not yet enough because we still have one more week for sensitising and we have introduced different strategies which will help us get to the village level, for example we are using bill boards, social media among other means,” Kansanga said.

The voter turnout at the previous elections was 97.3 per cent and NEC’s expectation for the upcoming election scheduled next Tuesday is also above 97 per cent.

"We call for all Rwandans who are eligible to vote to exercise their rights come February 22,” she said.

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