A Rwandan casting his vote during the 2010 General Election. PHOTO | FILE |
Last week Rwanda’s ruling party, the Rwanda Patriotic Front,
resoundingly endorsed Paul Kagame as its candidate in this year’s
elections.
A total of 1,029 delegates out of 1,030
voted for him. The missing vote was due to a spoilt ballot. There is
speculation about who spoilt their ballot.
Some are
arguing it was the candidate, because he would not have wanted to be
seen to vote for himself, given he had not entirely warmed up to the
entire process that culminated in the endorsement.
Snippets
of information from the inner sanctums of the RPF since 2013 when the
subject of the transition was first broached, suggest that while others
were certain about the imperative for him to stick around, he was the
one always asking the difficult questions and arguing for not taking
anything for granted.
His acceptance speech in which he
urged Rwandans to work hard to eliminate the factors that led to the
current situation and to ensure “some kind of transition” during the
next seven years, seems to point to that.
Whatever the
truth of the matter, short of the skies falling on us and there being
no elections as a result, we now know who will be president of Rwanda
come August 5, when all the voting will have been wrapped up.
The
four other candidates, three of whom will run as independents with no
political party structures to support their campaigns, and one of whom
leads a tiny political organisation with highly limited reach, are
merely spicing up the contest.
Those who may be
seeking long careers in politics are very probably aiming to attain the
all-important “face recognition” in preparation for future races when
they may run against conceivably beatable RPF candidates. Others are
probably in it for the fun and excitement that comes with being “umukandida.”
As
we prepare for the actual race to begin on July 14, we are each
focusing on aspects of the process that speak to our own individual
preoccupations, given what we know about presidential campaigns and
elections in this part of the world.
If there is
anything we can guarantee prior to any election in our region, it is
that someone or some individuals out there will be worrying about not
whether the votes will be stolen, but how they will be stolen.
And
so the process of identifying and designating candidates’ agents for
every polling station becomes as fraught as the campaigning itself. In
Rwanda, however, whether votes will be stolen or not, has never been an
issue.
There is a certain trust in the basic integrity
of the organs and individuals in charge of the country’s electoral
processes that totally disarms those of us who hail from contexts where
the general public takes it for granted that so-called independent
electoral commissions are simply incapable of ensuring that electoral
processes are not only free and fair, but also transparent.
In
Rwanda, nothing shows the level of trust in the electoral commission
and in turn its own trust in Rwandans better than the current proposals
for how Rwandans in the diaspora will be facilitated to vote. It is
expected that up to 40,000 Rwandans spread across the globe will be able
to participate.
That Rwandans in the diaspora who
want to vote usually do so, is hardly news. What is, is the electoral
commission’s willingness and capacity to innovate to ensure that as many
who want to participate as possible, can.
Up until
now, only those living in countries where Rwanda has embassies have had
the opportunity to vote, in processes overseen by embassy staff.
This year, the electoral commission is extending opportunities for
participation to those living in countries where Rwanda does not have
embassies, provided they add up to a minimum of 40 eligible voters.
Eligibility itself is not difficult to achieve, as one can now register
as a voter through an online portal created for the purpose.
To
create a polling station where they live, all they have to do is to
organise themselves and choose three volunteers who will oversee the
voting and vote counting and also take responsibility for sending the
results to the designated embassy for onward transmission to Kigali.
There
will be no embassy officials or representatives of foreign observer
missions to ensure that everything goes well. The ballots and tallying
sheets are to be sent from Kigali via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’
system for handling documentation to and from embassies.
These
innovations are a response to pressure by diaspora Rwandans to be
enabled to vote wherever they live, and of late by presidential
candidates concerned that their supporters in the diaspora should not be
disenfranchised.
It is easy to focus on the details and forget about their significance. For me, it is the significance we should focus on.
First,
that the electoral commission can trust Rwandans wherever they live to
manage on their own without supervision from above, points to the
achievement of a political maturity that is difficult to associate with a
typical African election involving a typical African government in a
typical African country.
Second, if Rwanda can do it, the rest of us can. It is simply a matter of the choices we make.
Frederick Golooba-Mutebi is a Kampala- and Kigali-based researcher and writer on politics and public affairs. E-mail: fgmutebi@yahoo.com
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