The National Electoral Commission (NEC) has provisionally cleared 459 candidates who will contest for parliamentary seats during the general elections slated for next month.

This represents close to 70 per cent of 666 candidates who submitted candidatures to the electoral body – including aspirants from political organisations, independent ones, and those representing special interest groups namely women, youth, and people with disabilities.

In general, the total number of candidates is slightly lower than the 675 that was earlier reported, something that is largely attributed to the fact that the list of candidates that political parties said they fielded does not match the data announced by NEC.

Rwanda’s Lower House – the Chamber of Deputies – is composed of 80 members.

"The level of participation in submitting candidate applications demonstrates the significant strides Rwanda has made in its democratic process. Young people are showing that not only are they ready to vote for the first time, but they want to put themselves forward for election and take on leadership positions,” stated the Chairperson of the National Electoral Commission (NEC), Oda Gasinzigwa.

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On the position of Members of Parliament, Gasinzigwa said the commission received six political organisations that submitted the lists of the candidates they wanted to field for the 2024 polls.

Overall, she said, the political organisations nominated 392 candidates, and 246 met requirements, while 146 fell short of them.

The political organisations, she said, are the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF Inkotanyi) and political parties in coalition with it which, together, submitted a list of 80 candidates and 77 fulfilled the requirements; Liberal Party (PL) filed a list of 54 candidates and 39 met requirements, Social Democratic Party (PSD) submitted a list of 59 candidates of whom 52 qualified; the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda (DGPR) submitted a list of 64 candidates and nine met requirements; Ideal Democratic Party (PDI) PDI fielded 55 candidates and 41 met requirements; PS Imberakuri submitted a list of 80 candidates and 28 qualified.

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Independent candidates

NEC indicated that it received 27 aspirants for the position of Members of Parliament, but only one – Janvier Nsengiyumva – meets the requirements.

It pointed out that among the 26 who do meet the requirements, some lack documents that accompany a candidature, while all of them fall short of the requirement for the list of the at least 600 eligible voters supporting their candidacy, including at least 12 voters from each district.

Candidates from special interest groups

According to NEC, of the 200 aspirants for whom it received candidatures under the women special interest group, 181 qualified.

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For parliamentary candidates for youth representation in parliament’s lower chamber, NEC announced that it received the candidatures of 34 aspirants and 23 fulfilled the requirements.

Regarding candidates for representing people with disabilities in parliament, NEC received the candidatures of 13 candidates and seven meet the requirements.

According to article 60 of the law of 2019 governing elections, which was amended in 2023, before publication of the final list of candidates, an aspirant [who is temporarily] disqualified by the commission is informed in writing of the documents that are missing in his or her dossier and granted more time it.

This is done within five working days of publication of the provisional list of candidates and before publication of the final list.

Given that the publication of the final list of candidatures is due June 14, NEC announced that aspirants with missing documents have from June 7 to June 13 to provide them.

However, it indicated that the unmet condition for at least 600 eligible voters supporting their candidacy, including at least 12 voters from each district of the country, cannot be fulfilled after May 30 – the deadline passed – implying that aspirants who fall short of it are, in fact, disqualified.