SENATE ELECTIONS IN RWANDA YET LIFE CONTINUES AS NORMAL
Today will see the scheduled elections across Rwanda take place for the Senate, the upper chamber of the countrys parliamentary system of governance.
The campaign for senatorial seats was generally calm and apart from meeting members of the electoral college and canvassing their votes hardly noticed by visitors to the country, who came as tourists or to exploit business opportunities in trade or investments.
Yes we have Senate elections on Monday said a regular source in Kigali before continuing and life goes on as normal here. You see, here in Rwanda our people, our politicians are disciplined, there is no problem like you would expect in other African countries when elections are due. Like you wrote about Seychelles elections being so calm and orderly, here in Rwanda that same thing happens. We have over 50 candidates for the 12 seats up for grab on Monday and they have all conducted themselves very well. This is why our tourist flow continues without disruption, why we host conferences and groups of investors at the same time; even during general elections we saw the same trend. Rwanda is a peaceful and disciplined country now and our visitors need not worry about us having an election here. In fact they dont worry as our arrival statistics clearly show, there has been no hesitation by anyone wanting to come to Rwanda for a visit.
It is understood that the Senate members will not be elected in the form of a general elections but by councilors already representing their districts and other special interest groups and only 55 polling stations have been set up to cater for the casting of votes and counting the ballots to establish results. And why, you might ask, is this being reported here? Because it goes to show that Africa can be different, elections can be peaceful and orderly and the few bad apples on the continent should not spoil the image of the whole of Africa in world opinion.
