Exercise to submit candidatures for September Parliamentary Elections was closed yesterday.
Speaking in a press conference Thursday, NEC Chairperson, Prof. Kalisa Mbanda said that women make 61 per cent of candidatures received.
“We received 537 aspirants with 326 women (61%). We started evaluation process of documents so that we identify those with complete dossiers,” he explained.
He said that political parties submitted lists of 313 candidates of who 136 are women
RPF-Inkotanyi and six political parties which formed coalition submitted a list of 80 candidates comprising 46 women; Liberal Party (PL) submitted a list of 80 candidates with 33 women; the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda (DGPR) submitted a list of 34 candidates with 16 women; Social Democratic Party (PSD) submitted a list of 65 candidates comprising 20 women whereas PS-Imberakuri submitted a list of 54 candidates from which women are 21.
There were no independent women aspirants.
Of the 24 seats reserved for women , NEC received 179 aspirants; on two seats reserved for youth, the commission received 30 candidatures including nine women while one seat reserved for representative of persons with disabilities, NEC received 10 candidatures among which are two women .
Previously, NEC had issued forms to 17 independent candidates to collect signatures required to submit their candidacies.
According to Mbanda, some people may have dropped out of the race due to different challenges.
“Only five submitted their applications and we have no information about the remaining eight,” he added.
According to NEC Executive Secretary, Charles Munyaneza, the number of candidates has been increased compared to that of 2013 elections.
“In previous Parliamentary Elections, we had three political parties which are RPF, PL and PSD, but you have seen that new political parties submitted the lists of their candidates. This implies that as political space continues to room large, many people and political parties want to contest,” he said.
NEC says that the provisional list will be released on July 30th and the final to be released on August 8th 2018.
Campaigning process will start on August 13th and run until September 1st 2018 while elections are scheduled on September 2nd and 3rd to Rwandans living in the diaspora and those from the country casting their votes respectively.
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