Nearly 600 candidates scramble for 80 seats in Parliament

Candidates eligible to contest for parliamentary seats in the Lower House in the 2024 elections expected in July, rose to 589 as per the final list by the National Electoral Commission (NEC), up from 459 who had made it to the provisional one. Rwanda’s Lower House – known as the Chamber of Deputies - is composed of 80 members. Overall, NEC received 666 candidatures for parliamentary aspirants, according to their tally. They include 392 nominated by six political organisations, 27 independents, 200 under women's special interest group, 34 under youth special interest group, and 13 under the special group of people with disabilities. The final list published by NEC on June 14 implies that candidates who meet requirements represent more than 84 per cent of the 666 aspirants for parliamentary positions. Of the 392 aspirants on political party lists, 345 meet the requirements, up from 246 who were on the NEC provisional list of eligible candidates. The Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF Inkotanyi) – which is the current ruling party – and the five political parties that formed a coalition with it, submitted a list of 80 candidates, all of which meet requirements for the parliamentary elections, according to NEC’s final list. This implies that the three aspirants who were falling short of the requirements as per its provisional list that was published on June 6, later fulfilled them. Liberal Party (PL) also saw all the 54 candidates it fielded for parliamentary elections meet requirements, compared to 39 who had qualified earlier, while the Social Democratic Party’s (PSD) 59 candidates qualified, up from 52 who had made it to the provisional list. The Democratic Green Party of Rwanda (DGPR) got 50 candidates who meet the requirements, which is way higher than nine in the provisional list. According to NEC, the party had submitted a list of 64 candidates, which implies that 14 fell short of the requirements. Other parties are the Ideal Democratic Party (PDI) which filed a list of 55 candidates all of which met the requirements compared to 41 in the preliminary list, and the (Social Party) PS Imberakuri which filed a list of 80 candidates and 47 fulfilled the requirements, up from 28 in the provisional list, according to NEC. ALSO READ: What does it take to be a member of parliament in Rwanda? While 27 independent aspirants had submitted their candidatures to NEC, only one independent candidate, Janvier Nsengiyumva, made it to the final list. This is the same as the provisional list of June 6, which indicated apart from Nsengiyumva, other aspirants (26) fell short of the required list of at least 600 eligible voters supporting their candidatures, including at least 12 voters from each district. Both candidates from political parties and independent ones vie for 53 seats in the Lower House. Candidates for special seats in parliament Special seats (27) in the Lower House are reserved for special interest groups namely women, youth, and people with disabilities. For the women category, 199 female candidates made it to the final list, up from 181 on the provisional one. They are vying for 24 seats reserved for female lawmakers in the Chamber of Deputies. The candidates are from five constituencies, namely Northern Province with 33; Southern Province, 60; Eastern Province, 46; Western Province, 44; and the City of Kigali, 16. ALSO READ: How seats for 24 female lawmakers will be distributed by constituency For the youth, 31 candidates got the green light, up from 23 on the provisional list. They are vying for two seats reserved for youth representation in the lower chamber of Parliament; while for people with disabilities, 13 got a go-ahead, up from seven earlier. They are competing for one seat meant for the representation of this group in the Lower House.

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