The opposition says Nkurunziza’s bid violated the constitution.
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Burundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza has won a third term in office in an election the US called deeply flawed.
Major donors United States and the European Union, both critical of Nkurunziza, have threatened measures from cutting aid to imposing sanctions after Burundi went ahead with an election they said could not be free or fair.
Nkurunziza won 69.41 per cent of the vote in Tuesday’s polls, handing him an immediate first-round victory, the election commission said.
Pierre Ndayicariye, head of the country’s electoral commission, announced the result at the presidential palace in Bujumbura, capital of the country, on Friday.
Leading opposition politician, Agathon Rwasa, who boycotted the vote, has called for a government of national unity.
Amnesty worldwide has also released a report (pdf) titled “Braving Bullets – Excessive force in Policing Demonstrations” that details how excessive force was used by the police against opposition demonstrators in the weeks before and during the Burundi elections. The US State Department has said the election lacked credibility, with spokesperson John Kirby claiming the legitimacy of the process “has been tainted by the government’s harassment of opposition and civil society members, closing down of media outlets and political space, and intimidation of voters”.
Nkurunziza’s candidacy was condemned as unconstitutional by the opposition and provoked months of protests and an attempted coup in mid-May.
In May, Nkurunziza held onto the Burundian presidency after a failed coup attempt by an army general while Nkurunziza was in Tanzania.
Regional leaders and Western diplomats fear Burundi could slide back into civil war if tensions are not resolved.
The unrest has raised fears of spillover in a region that includes Rwanda, where a genocide took place in 1994, and copper- and cobalt-producing Democratic Republic of Congo, which had the deadliest war in Africa’s modern history.
More than 100 people were killed during several weeks of protests and more than 170,000 have fled to refugee camps in neighboring countries.
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Burundi ” s President Pierre Nkurunziza speaks during a news conference in Bujumbura, Burundi, May 17, 2015.
