Kigali, July 15 (IANS): Millions of Rwandans voted on Monday morning at more than 2,600 polling stations across the country to elect their president and members of parliament.
Polling begins at 7am local time and ends at 3pm. According to the National Election Commission (NEC), around 9.5 million voters are expected to fulfill their civic duty, Xinhua reported.
Rwandan voters arrived at their polling stations as early as 6 a.m. and formed long queues before the official voting time of 7 a.m. Voters queued calmly and orderly as polling officials supervised the process to ensure peaceful voting.
According to the NEC, Rwandans living abroad on Sunday voted at 140 polling stations in 70 countries around the world.
Three candidates are running in the presidential election: incumbent President Paul Kagame of the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), Frank Habineza of the opposition Rwanda Democratic Green Party, and independent candidate Philippe Mpaimana.
According to the electoral commission, there are 589 candidates for 80 seats in the House of Representatives, the lower house of Rwanda’s bicameral parliament, including representatives of political parties, special groups (youth, women and persons with disabilities) and one independent candidate.
According to the electoral commission, more than 100,000 Rwandans volunteered as polling station staff and more than 1,100 domestic and international observers were accredited for the election.
Foreign observers represent various regional and international organisations, including the African Union, European Union, East African Community (EAC), Commonwealth, International Council of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) and Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS).
