KIGALI - The Executive Secretary of the National Electoral Commission (NEC), Charles Munyaneza, has said elections for local leaders are slated to take place between February and March 2011.

Rwandans will elect leaders from the village to the district level including advisory council members as well as representatives of special interest groups like the youth women.

However, the final calendar indicating the exact days for the exercise is yet to be approved by the Cabinet, said Munyaneza.

"We are still working on the election timeline, and then we shall submit the timetable to the Cabinet for validation.That is when we will start actual preparations for the elections,” Munyaneza said.

In the meantime, NEC will be working on correcting and updating the voters’ register and sensitizing the population on the elections.

The last local leaders’ elections were held in 2006.
Only seven mayors of the 30 elected at the time are still in office, according to statistics from the Ministry of Local Government.

Others have resigned or have been replaced mainly due to mismanagement, corruption or abuse of office.

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