A youth parliamentary candidate has vowed to support the Savings and Credit Youth Cooperative (COJAD) and turn it into a major development project.This, Eric Ndayishimiye says, will help tackle youth unemployment by providing project management training opportunities free of charge for youth, among others.Ndayishimiye made the promise during a news conference to outline key elements of his campaign manifesto in Kigali yesterday.He is one of the 23 candidates seeking to represent the youth in the Chamber of Deputies. The youth are reserved two seats. “It will be turned into a bank that gives credit at low interest rates with another task of helping the youth in project planning and evaluation,” Ndayishimiye said.The 27-year old candidate also promised to help improve opportunities in sports and culture once elected to Parliament. “Our intention is to turn sports into a profession,” he said.Ndayishimiye is a teacher at Lycee de Kigali. He holds a master’s degree in information technology.He played a major role in the 2012 RINA Humanitarian Award given to Isaro Foundation by the Rwanda International Network Association (RINA) for good initiatives that advanced a culture of reading and writing among Rwandan youth, especially students.Rwanda will hold parliamentary elections from September 16 to 18.Voting day The Chamber of Deputies has 80 members elected for a five year term. Fifty-three MPs are voted by all Rwandans eligible to vote; 24 women representatives are elected by electoral college.The youth are reserved two seats while people with disabilities have one seat in the 80 member Chamber of Deputies. The youth electoral college is composed of 264 voters, including eight representatives of institutions of higher learning, eight from high schools, eight from the national executive committee and 240 representing the youth from all the districts.The National Electoral Commission (NEC) has said parliamentary candidates in the special categories of youth and people living with disabilities will hold their campaigns on September 18, the day when the youth and the disabled are slated to vote for their representatives.
