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International observers pleased with Rwanda elections’ good conduct
In the report released on Wednesday, July 17, 2024, the observers, mostly representatives of different groups on the African continent, said that wherever they were able to reach the different parts of the country, the elections were conducted in the following manner: No unusual problems occurred in the law, because the voters voted peacefully, voted according to their own choice, and no one forced them to vote.
Expressing this view in the report are observers from the East African Community (EAC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern African States (COMESA), the African Union (AU), the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), the East African Emergency Force Community and the Organisation de la Francophonie (IOF).
The report prepared by the EAC observers showed that they were able to work in 168 polling stations in different parts of the country, of which 56% of the work locations were in rural areas and about 44% were in different regions. The elections started on time in urban areas with all the required materials in place, and the elections will end on time as planned by the National Electoral Commission (NEC).
They said that wherever the elections were held, they were observed and conducted transparently as per the provisions of the law as they did not see any violations.
In that report they also said that in addition to the fact that it was calm during the elections, but also during the campaign, it was conducted in a calm and peaceful manner, and each candidate was given rights, so this also reached the official media, and everyone had equal time, and his colleagues were competing for the position of head of state.
David Malaga, former president of the Kenyan Supreme Court who led the East African Community observer mission, said the electoral process was well prepared and Rwanda was one of the best places he had seen the electoral process.
“It was indeed one of the best elections I have ever seen, especially on the day of the election, it was online, in our report we mentioned it, which is good, there are some things that countries around the world know about. The region can learn from Rwanda, including security and planning, we saw elections with riots, killings and noise, but until the actual day of the election I have not experienced anything here, my people report to me that this has never happened, which is good.”
Not only did the EAC observers’ report praise the way the Rwandan elections were conducted, as ECCAS also said that they were able to reach different parts of the country in the 144 locations where they worked, and that things went smoothly, as they saw the results from different perspectives. People, including women, young people and people with disabilities participated in the elections, and they conducted the elections peacefully without any problems, although some locations were delayed by 30 minutes until the scheduled closing time of the polls.
Equipment must be available and of good quality, and volunteers must be knowledgeable about elections.
Although there is not much difference in the reports of these organizations as most of them are the same, AU said that what touched them was that in the 202 sites they reached, they found that about 67% of voters were women, but there were also some places where they found that the polling stations were not accessible by car, so it was a problem for people who drove.
Some of the things they asked for improvements include educating those involved in the electoral process because some of the obstacles they face include misunderstandings with them mainly because of their lack of language to communicate because the observers do not know Kinyarwanda and most of them do not know English, French and Swahili.
The day before the election, the NEC announced that more than 1,100 observers would be allowed to be present, of which more than 700 were from within the country and more than 300 were from abroad, while polling stations exceeded 2,000, of which 158 were for Rwandans living in Rwanda to vote, while those abroad voted in 70 countries.
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