NAIROBI, 18 Nov 2002 (IRIN) - Foreign donors and aid agencies are to assist the Rwandan government to prepare for democratic elections due in July 2003, the United Nations reported on Friday.

The UN Development Programme, British, Swedish and other aid agencies are to help Rwanda's electoral commission to draw up a plan for the July 2003 elections, train electoral monitors, provide ballot boxes and computerise voter rolls.

UNDP had already helped Rwanda's Constitutional Commission produce a draft constitution, and supported the judiciary and police forces, the UN added. The constitution is due to be submitted to a national referendum in March 2003.

In a meeting on 14 November, Rwandan President Paul Kagame asked UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown for help to ensure "efficiency" and "transparency" during the elections.
Brown said that Rwanda's future depended on its efforts to deepen democracy, and that "the challenge is to ensure that the government is the government of the people - of all the people".

The July elections will mark the end of the transition period that has followed the 1994 genocide.