A total of 7,174,188 have registered to participate in the parliamentary elections slated for September, the National Electoral Commission (NEC) has announced

Addressing the media on Monday Prof Kalisa Mbanda, NEC Chairperson said 54 per cent of the registered voters are women while men account for 46 per cent.

There are over 46,000 voters who will cast their votes from diaspora but Kalisa said they expect the number to increase, given that the online registration platform is open until August 14.

The number of general voters increases by four per cent compared to the 2013 parliamentary elections, Kalisa said, adding that, 45 per cent of all the voters are youth.

NEC officials have urged Rwandans to show up in big number to vote for parliamentary elections knowing that those who will be elected are their representatives and they have a responsibility to vote for qualified candidates.

Voters who talked to the The New Times, especially those who will vote for the first time said they were eager to know how the elections are conducted and how they are different from the presidential elections.

"I am ready to vote but particularly I want to hear how the (parliamentary) campaigns will be different from the presidential campaigns, because I heard we will not be electing one person but rather many on one list. I will need to understand how one can vote for many people on one list,” said Joselyine Imanaturikumwe from Kicukiro district.

She also said that she will wait for the campaign to start in order to make decision on whether to vote for political parties or for individuals.

The competing political parties include Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), Liberal Party (PL), Social Democratic Party (PSD) The Democratic Green Party of Rwanda (DGPR) as well as PS Imberakuri.

Two independent candidates, former presidential aspirant Philippe Mpayimana and Salim Elissam Ntibanyendera were approved by NEC. Three others missed some documents but Mbanda said they still have five days to look for the documents and submit them to NEC.

The candidate will be contesting for 53 seats which are voted for in the general category.

Others are in special categories. Twenty four seats are reserved for women, two seats for the youth representatives and one seat for persons with disability.

 For the special categories, there are 177 women vying for 24 seats  out of 179 women that had submitted their candidatures.

A total of 27 youth are competing for two seats.

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