Round-up of Diaspora votes

The Rwandan Diaspora around the world, yesterday, turned up at their respective embassies to vote for the next President, a day before the rest of the country, which is voting today. According to the National Electoral Commission (NEC), it was decided that Rwandans in the Diaspora vote a day before, (Sunday August 8). “Voting on a working day has been difficult for the Diaspora because they don’t get a holiday like us here. This has been affecting their turn up at the polls,” said the Executive Secretary of NEC Charles Munyaneza in a recent interview. Speaking to The New Times on phone, the Rwandan Ambassador to Belgium Gerard Ntwali said that elections at the embassy were going on well. “Elections here began on time – 6 a.m., - as stipulated and people have been coming consistently since then,” said Ntwali adding that they were waiting for the time to close and begin counting the votes. According to the ambassador, the polling center at the embassy has a total of 2,200 registered voters and by press time, more than a half of the voters had turned up to vote. Reports from South Korea also show that the Rwandan community there participated in the Sunday elections.The more than 30 Rwandans residing in South Korea voted from the Rwandan embassy in Seoul the Capital of South Korea. In an interview, Odette Kamanzi the Canadian Diaspora representative said that voting was going on well at the High Commission. “People are coming in big numbers and voting is going on well,” said Kamanzi adding that some had traveled all night to be able to vote. “Canada is a vast country so some people had to come a day before and some had to travel all night to be here today.” The Diaspora has a total of 21, 741 adults of which 21, 717 are the registered voters while a total of 5, 178, 492 Rwandans expected to participate in today’s polls. Ends