Democracy Day marked amid calls for youth empowerment

As Rwanda joined the rest of the world to celebrate the International Democracy Day on Monday, a top UN official called for increased participation of young people in the democratic processes. Speaking at the event hosted at Parliament on Monday, Lamin Manneh the UN Resident Coordinator, challenged stakeholders to initiate the youth into the democratic process and help them become more politically active citizens. Celebrated in Rwanda under the theme; “Sharing Rwandan voices on democracy’, the day was globally marked under the theme; “Engaging young people on democracy.” “While we cannot ignore some of the areas that observers believe need attention in Rwanda’s democratisations process, we cannot underestimate the tremendous progress the country has made,” he said. Charles Munyaneza, the Executive Secretary of the National Electoral Commission, said though youth participation in politics has increased since 2009, youth representation in Parliament remains low. “In local councils, youth are represented by 70 per cent. However, in Parliament (Chambers of Deputies), numbers are not really good. Out of 80 MPs, only nine are youth (below 35 years), representing 11 per cent,” he said. Manneh said the youth are leaders of tomorrow and need to be helped to overcome the challenges that lie in their way. “We have to help young people overcome these challenges and harness the opportunities,” Manneh said. However, speaking to The New Times, Dr Félicien Usengumukiza, the Deputy CEO, Governance Research and Monitoring at Rwanda Governance Board, said that youth participation in the governance process should not be seen as a matter of numbers. “We can not assess democracy by looking at the number of youth in Parliament. If our Constitution gives opportunities to youth representation in Parliament and other leadership organs, to me it is a good indicator of democracy because this is something you will not find in many countries,” Usengumukiza said. He said that Rwandans are proud of the country’s achievements in rule of law, transparency and accountability, increased citizen participation and power sharing, among others. “I am happy we are on track in as regard to democratic governance. We have made sure that no part of society lags behind. We are learning from our history, to correct the mistakes made by past governments,” he said. The Director General of Rwanda Management Institute, Wellars Gasamagera, said democracy should not be measured in numbers but rather national development agendas and sovereignty. “You can not talk about democracy while ignoring national sovereignty and development. Democracy should not be defined by foreigners, dictating on what you should do and what you should not do,” he said. He added: “Youth representation in leadership is still growing, and needs to be consolidated. This is being done across the political divide. There is what we call youth political training which has existed for the last three or four years. I challenge youth to embrace democratic governance because they are the future belongs to them,” Gasamagera said. The 2012 national housing census showed that Rwandans between the age of 14 and 35 constitute 40 per cent of the tatal population, while those below 35 years of age amount to 78 per cent of the entire population.

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Democracy Day marked amid calls for youth empowerment