*Polls expected to cost 6 billion
*Political parties get Rwf 80m for preparation

KIGALI - The number of Rwandans ready to cast their votes in the forthcoming 2010 Presidential elections has hiked by over half a million compared to last year’s figures for the parliamentary polls.

The National Electoral Commission (NEC) Executive Secretary Charles Munyaneza yesterday               revealed that preparations have already started and are in good progress, with elections scheduled for mid August next year.

While 2008 Parliamentary elections saw below five million voters, the already finished voters register for next year’s presidential race is said to contain about 5.3 millions of voters.

Munyaneza explained that the list has gone electronic and on top of bearing the identity of the voter, there is even a picture to avoid any kind of election malpractices.

According to NEC’s planning, the increment of voters has consequently triggered the rise of election materials and personnel, where ballot boxes have risen from sixteen thousand last year to twenty thousand, and volunteers from 65,000 to 70,000.

From this, Munyaneza said, the budget itself augmented from Rwf 5 billion to Rwf 6 billion for next year’s polls, with the commission using its "Basket Funding Arrangement” that facilitates its sponsors to sink in support, including the European Union, UNDP, Netherlands and Sweden among others.

He also mentioned that it was another great achievement when, through a consultative process with their stakeholders, they came up with a common draft of electoral code that combines all the electoral laws in the country.

"We have forwarded the document to the Ministry of Local Government, and there is hope it will be signed into law by October,” Munyaneza said.

Part of the preparatory process involves a massive sensitisation campaign to raise people’s awareness about the importance of elections.

Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary of the Forum for Political Parties, Anicet Kayigema, revealed that the forum has requested and received the budget estimated at around Rwf 80 million to help in the preparations.

"We will soon start training parties’ representatives about campaign communications, and they will in turn train their followers,” he said, mentioning that no party has yet presented any candidates suggestions to the forum.

The law stipulates that candidacies are deposited to the NEC 45 days before elections, while open campaigns start within 20 days to the polls.

The 2010 Presidential elections will be the second after the transitional government that lead the country after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

Ends