Hours before polls open for the country’s presidential election, heavy gunfire and explosions have rocked the capital Bujumbura. No information on casualties was immediately available. There were no reports of injuries.
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Critics fear a win by the incumbent will be a hollow victory, leaving him ruling over a deeply divided nation.
Burundian writer Roland Rugero tweeted a photo of what appeared to be court documents that said it was, “neither judicious nor necessary or desirable to issue” the orders that would have allowed the election to be delayed.
With the election denounced by the opposition as a sham, the 51-year-old president – a former rebel, born-again Christian and football fanatic – is facing no serious competition.
Burundi’s Interior Minister Edouard Nduwimana who is the spokesman for the governmental group in the dialogue justified the withdrawal, alluding to the declaration by some opposition figures calling for the creation of a National Council for the Restoration of Arusha Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in Burundi.
Up to 1,000 people are streaming daily into neighbouring Tanzania, where the Nyarugusu refugee camp is struggling to accommodate about 80,000 Burundians, according to the aid organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders).
Rebel generals failed in a coup attempt to overthrow Nkurunziza in May, but the group has continued a rebellion in the north of the country, AFP reported. “If they [the coup leaders] threaten to attack the country, security forces are standing firm”.
The elections were in disarray on Sunday 19 July as government representatives failed to show up for talks about the unrest.
Burundi’s electoral commission said opposition names were still on the ballot paper and any votes for them would be counted.
Small, landlocked and one of the world s poorest nations, former Belgian colony Burundi is situated in the heart of central Africa s troubled Great Lakes region.
Some analysts claimed over the renew may bring much conflict and violence to the country and reignite Hutu-Tutsi violence.
Among the few people who voted in opposition areas of the capital, Bujumbura, many tried to wipe off the indelible ink on their fingers fearing reprisals from the opposition supporters.
The results of parliamentary polls took a week to be announced.
One 40-year-old voter in Bujumbura, Ferdinand, said he would vote for Nkurunziza, a soccer fan who is often pictured rolling up his sleeves to work with people in the fields, because he had “a good program of development for ordinary citizens”.
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Burundi’s constitution only allows a president to be elected twice – for a total of 10 years in power – but Nkurunziza argues he has only been directly elected by the people once.
