An estimated Rwf 5 billion will be spent to fund the forthcoming  local government elections slated for March 2011, the Executive Secretary of the National Electoral Commission(NEC), Charles Munyaneza, has said.

He told The New Times in a phone interview that NEC officials will meet next week to put final touches in the budget.

"The biggest chunk of this budget will go to updating and cleaning the voters’ register in all the country’s 30 districts, mainly because the list of voters will be taken to villages (midugudu) to be updated at least twice before the elections,” Munyaneza said.

He added that next year’s elections will also see voters being issued new voter cards either because they have lost their cards or are worn out.

"We have worked on the election timeline and submitted the timetable to the Cabinet for validation. That is when we will start actual preparations for the elections,” Munyaneza said.

He explained that the rest of the money will go to various election preparation programs including public awareness campaigns, something that he said, should be maximised based on the positive results it registered during this year’s Presidential elections.

After the local government elections, Rwandans will also head into the Senatorial elections scheduled for October 2011.

Ends