EU election observers release final report

NEC says not ready to declare position GASABO - The European Union Electoral Observer Mission (EU EOM) yesterday released its final report on the legislative elections held between 15 to 18 September last year which made substantial improvements compared to the previous election. The 43-page report was presented by the Chief Observer, Michael Cashman, who said that since the 2003 elections, the country had implemented all the recommendations that were made by the EU in the past elections. According to Cashman, the recommendations included a more inclusive voter register, the liberalization of the media sector, opportunity of political parties to open offices and organize at local levels and gender equality. “The National Electoral Commission (NEC) carried out electoral process effectively and implemented the deployment of electoral personnel and electoral material effectively. NEC embarked on commendable training exercise,” said Cashman while presenting the report at a function that was held at Novotel Hotel in Kigali. The report was not drastically different from the preliminary brief one that was released shortly after the elections of September 15. He however said that his team was unable to follow the consolidation process from the polling centres where the general elections were held. The earlier report had lauded the preparation of the elections whose turn up was according to NEC over 98 percent of the registered voters. The final report was however made public after four months despite the mission having promised earlier said that it would be released one month after the elections. In a related development, asked his reaction on the report NEC Chairman Prof. Chrysologue Karangwa said: “at this moment I cannot comment about the report, I got it this morning and I need enough time to go though it with my team.” “We respect what they have produced and we will be comparing their results with other reports that have been produced to look at some crosscutting issues that were highlighted,” said Karangwa. The parliamentary elections, which were the second in the country’s post genocide history, saw 80 representatives both from political organisations and other interest groups elected to the parliament. Among these, 53 were elected through direct elections while the rest were voted through Electoral Colleges which included women (24), youths (two) and persons with disabilities who had one representative. Women for the first time in history garnered the majority votes taking 56.2% of the seats. Ends