Burundi’s electoral commission has announced that President Pierre Nkurunziza won a new term in office after an election marred by violence and a boycott by the opposition.
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Earlier this week Rwasa, leader of the opposition Amizero y’Abarundi coalition, said a unity government should be formed immediately to stop Burundi slipping into conflict.
Nkurunziza’s candidacy was condemned as unconstitutional by the opposition and provoked months of protests and an attempted coup in the central African nation.
Washington and Brussels both warned the poll would not be credible, admonishing Nkurunziza for breaking the two-term limit agreed in a key peace deal that ended the 12-year civil war and kept ethnic tensions in check. During the past six weeks, grenade attacks have been near-nightly occurrences.
Nkurunziza pushed ahead with the presidential polls on Tuesday, though the vote had been branded as illegitimate by the worldwide community. In a report released this week, Amnesty global said: “Treating largely peaceful demonstrators and entire residential areas as part of an insurrection was counter-productive and escalated rather than defused protests”.
Whether Burundi will accept the vote remains to be seen.
“We will not recognise the outcome of this election and the institutions resulting from it”, Frederic Bamvuginyumvira, president of the opposition FRODEBU party, said after Nkurunziza was announced the victor. “They are elections organised in Burundi for Burundians by Burundians, with challenges that remain our own”. Since anti-Nkurunziza demonstrations erupted in April, more than 100 people have been killed, while tens of thousands have fled to neighboring countries.
“The opposition doesn’t need to be overseas, where they keep on saying something is wrong in Burundi, trying to cut off aid”.
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The election was postponed twice, from June 26 to July 15 and then to July 21, under pressure from the African Union, the European Union and the United States.
