The Chairman of the Rwanda National Electoral Commission (NEC) Prof Kalisa Mbanda has Monday morning received documents from presidential aspirants; Dr Frank Habineza of the Democratic Green Party and independent Gilbert Mwenedata.
Scheduled to arrive at 10:00am, Habineza came first at 10:27 in a black Toyota Land Cruiser Prado, accompanied by coasters of full of party diehards.
The NEC Chairman read documents to be submitted by the presidential candidates as according to the constitution.
As the law suggests, a presidential candidate is required to; submit document of citizenship, be above 35 years, submit document proving single citizenship, submit criminal record document, endorsing document from the political party one represents and one of their parents has to be Rwandan.
Candidates are further required to submit a photocopy of their voter’s card which Habineza didn’t have at the time.
Mbanda said the documents will be assessed and if approved, feedback will be communicated as the law suggests.
“Submitting supporting documents to the electoral commission does not guarantee that candidates qualify for the coming campaigns, they are submitted for assessment,” he said.
Speaking to the media after the submission of his documents opposition’s Habineza said the Green Party is committed to contest in the August 2017 presidential elections.
“The electoral commission told us there are more than 1 million new registered voters. We have over 51 percent chance to win this election. We have developed strong structures as a party and are ready to compete,” he said.
Asked on the challenges faced in as far as reaching this submission date is concerned, Habineza said “most local authorities were not aware of our political party and could sometimes harass our members because they had little information.”
The Green party became the first opposition party to name a presidential aspirant and has also come out to submit their documents to the electoral commission for assessment.
The 2017 presidential elections are set to be on the 4th of august 2017.