Six die in Burundi poll chaos

BURUNDI was tense yesterday before results of controversial elections boycotted by the opposition, with the capital calm a day after battles in which at least six people were shot dead.

More than 70 people have been killed in two months of protests and a failed coup attempt, that was sparked by President Pierre Nkurunziza’s defiant bid to stand for a third term, with almost 144 000 refugees fleeing into neighbouring nations.

The elections were internationally condemned, including by the UN, AU, and EU, while civil society groups backed the boycott calling on voters to skip the “sham elections”.

Vote counting from Monday’s polls has been completed at a local level, the election commission has said, but it remains unclear when final results would be announced.

Nkurunziza’s ruling CNDD-FDD party is expected to win a sweeping victory.

On Wednesday, at least six people were killed, including a policeman, during clashes in the capital Bujumbura’s Cibitoke district, an opposition area that has been one of the heartlands of protests against Nkurunziza.

Five of those killed on Wednesday were members of an armed group who were “neutralised”, police said.

A reporter who later entered the area after the shooting had ended, saw the bodies of six people killed, including a moneychanger in his 60s – and his two sons, who were both shot in the head. All the dead were civilians. Monday’s voting kicked off a series of elections, with presidential polls due on July 15, followed by senatorial elections on July 24. — AFP