Preliminary list of parliamentary candidates out today

The National Electoral Commission (NEC) is today expected to release the provisional list of candidates who will vie for parliamentary seats in the September legislative elections.“We intend to come up with the preliminary list of candidates tomorrow (today) which we will announce at a news briefing,” said Charles Munyaneza, the NEC executive secretary.According to the electoral calendar, NEC is expected to publish the final list on August 19.The approved candidates are those that fulfill the requirements. The list includes political parties’ candidates, independent aspirants as well as those for special interest groups.The Social Democratic Party (PSD) and Liberal Party (PL) yesterday submitted their lists of candidates to NEC.Francois Byabarumwanzi, the second vice president of PL, said they hope to win more seats in the Chamber of Deputies than the number the party currently holds.Presently, PL has seven MPs in Parliament, including three women representatives.“We are set for the campaigns, we have prepared a winning manifesto and we believe people will like it,” said Byabarumwanzi as he submitted a list of 68 PL candidates to NEC.PSD’s list of candidates was submitted by Aurelie Gahongayire, the deputy secretary-general of the party. She was accompanied by Senator Charles Uyisenga.Speaking to The New Times, Gahongayire said, “We have submitted a list of 80 people which has been accepted by the officials in charge of receiving candidatures and now we are set for the campaigns.”Other parties taking part in the September polls include the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), which was the first to submit its list of 80 candidates that include eight slots allocated to coalition parties.PS Imberakuri also submitted its list of 65 candidates to NEC on Sunday.Meanwhile, the newly-registered political party, Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, in a statement, yesterday, indicated it will not take part in the elections on grounds that they did not have enough time to prepare for the political run-in.The parties and special categories will be competing for the 80 seats in the Chamber of Deputies. Among those seats, 27 are allocated to special interest groups of women, the youth and the disabled, while political parties and independent candidates will compete for the remaining 53 seats.A coalition led by the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF-Inkotanyi) won the last parliamentary elections held on September 15, 2008.It was made up of RPF-Inkotanyi, Centrist Democratic Party (PDC), Parti du Progrès et la Concorde (PPC), Union Démocratique du Peuple Rwandais (UDPR), Parti de la Solidarité et du Progrès (PSP), Parti Socialiste Rwandais (PSR) and the Ideal Democratic Party (PDI).