The Chairman of the National Electoral Commission (NEC), Prof Chrysologue Karangwa, has urged students from several universities across the country to own the forthcoming presidential polls and other elections.

He made the call at a workshop that brought together students from eight universities. The theme of the workshop ‘understood the relationship between elections and development of the country’. 

Karangwa reminded the students the reasons they were in school, saying that they are not just there to acquire certificates, but rather to contribute to the development of the country.

"Not everyone who has completed university can be labeled an intellectual. During the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi planned and implemented by people who went to school but lacked values of intellectuals,” Karangwa told the students who had gathered at Maison de Jeunes in Kimisagara.

"Being an intellectual requires one to be mindful of their responsibilities in the society and to share the awareness with others in terms of contributing to the development of the country.”

Charles Munyaneza, the Executive Secretary of NEC, updated the students on the preparations of the Presidential polls to be held in August and told them that as far as compiling voters’ lists was concerned, the commission has accomplished at least 90 percent of the work.

He added that despite the fact that all the required funds have not been secured, everything was on the right course.

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