Rwandans are expected to exercise their right to elect their next president, and Members of Parliament (MPs) as their representatives in the legislature, in July 2024.

Throughout the country, the polling date for the President of the Republic and 53 Deputies (MPs) elected from a final list of names of candidates proposed by political organisations, or for independent candidates, is July 15, while it is expected the diaspora will vote on July 14.

Meanwhile, preparations including submission and approval of candidacies for contenders, campaigns, and updating voters’ registers are planned to take place earlier.

A voter’s register is defined as a document containing the identification of the eligible voters.

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The eligible

According to the organic law governing elections, a person allowed to register on the voters’ register of a village or an embassy of Rwanda – hence entitled to vote – is any Rwandan of at least 18 years of age or the one who will have attained it on the election day, and who is domiciled or resides in that village or in countries located in the territorial jurisdiction of that embassy.

It provides that for a person to register on the voters’ register, he or she must show his or her national identity card or any other document issued by a competent authority that attests to his or her Rwandan nationality.

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Every Rwandan who fulfils the requirements may use other means to register on the voters’ register in accordance with the instructions of the commission in charge of election [which is currently the National Electoral Commission – NEC].

The ineligible

However, some people will not have the right to vote because of their ineligibility to be part of the voters’ register.

According to organic law governing elections, people prohibited from registering on the voters’ register are; a person who has been deprived of their right to vote by competent courts and has not been rehabilitated or has not been granted amnesty in accordance with the legislation, a person convicted of manslaughter or murder, and a person convicted of the crime of genocide or crimes against humanity.

Also, the law provides that there are people temporarily disqualified from registering on the voters’ register.

They are namely a person in preventive detention under the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, a person imprisoned to serve a sentence, and a person who disrupts the tranquillity of the place of registration on the voters’ register.

It added that the disruption of tranquillity referred to must be recorded in a statement.