On Monday, July 15, 2024, Rwandans will vote to elect members of parliament and a president. David Maraga, the immediate former Chief Justice of the Republic of Kenya, will lead the team of East African Community (EAC) election observers to Rwanda for the upcoming election.
Yesterday, Maraga, who served as Kenya’s Chief Justice between 2016 and 2020, flagged off the 14 EAC Election Observation Teams comprising 55 eminent individuals from various backgrounds, including politicians, diplomats and experts in law, human rights, gender equality and election administration, from the Head of the Mission headquarters in Kigali.
The former CJ said the EAC leadership had selected the members of the observer group from across the EAC Partner States and the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) to assist in assessing the level of preparedness for the election and the level of compliance with the electoral processes and management to the international, regional and national established laws, principles and practices.
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Some arrived in the country on July 8, 2024, and are currently on deployment to all 30 districts in its four provinces, including the City of Kigali.
“Prior to the arrival of the larger team, the EAC had an advance team that carried out a detailed and technical analysis of the preparations and measures being undertaken by various institutions, agencies and stakeholders in the country. The findings from this analysis have formed the basis of further strategies for election observation, including the deployment of teams across the country to observe the polls,” the retired Chief Justice said.
On election day, members of the EAC Election Observation Teams will observe and consider all aspects of the election process across Rwanda – from the opening of polling stations and the voting process to the counting of ballots and announcement of results before coming up with a final report:
“The field reports filed by the observation teams will enable us to prepare a Preliminary Statement of the EAC Election Observation Mission, which shall be released on July 17, 2024. The mission will depart the Republic of Rwanda on July 18, 2024,” Maraga stated.
So far, he said that the mission had observed a generally calm electoral, political and security environment ahead of polling day.
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