Stand By Me

Kigali held local community elections yesterday morning. Work started late as everyone was participating and also as a general precaution. However, I've been told elections here have been quite safe in the last few years. As to the nature local election itself, it is quite different that what we're used to back home! To preface, each district is split up into cells and each cell conducts their own election. On the morning of local elections, community members from each cell gather in a central location in the community and elect their candidates of choice on the spot! Basically, the first position is announced, any candidate running can step up to a common platform and present their stump speech. After everyone has presented, the candidates spread out in the lawn, and voters physically step behind their candidate of choice! Election committees (or random people, not sure about that, hah) then count the number of voters behind each candidate, and announce who the winner of that position is. And then they move onto the next position. So basically, if you're not physically present during the morning voting session, you don't get another chance to vote. Also, I couldn't quite get a straight answer on this, but it seems like as long as you are physically present at the election, your vote is counted without the need to physically present any documentation of permanent residence in the community. I thought that was kind of funny because historically we have had problems with votes not being counted from legitimately registered citizens. Anyway, it is a really humid Saturday morning, and I need to get some more work done. :) Have a good weekend, everyone! I leave for Lusaka, Zambia in less than a week. I will miss the mountains and hills of Rwanda, but I'm sure Southern Africa will have a completely different atmosphere and perhaps new challenges as well. Until next time!