Top Burundi official flees on eve of elections
BUJUMBURA: The head of Burundi’s parliament on Sunday said he had fled the country on the eve of key elections following weeks of violence, denouncing the president’s “illegal” third term bid.
Amid international criticism of the government’s defiant refusal to delay the vote, parliament head Pie Ntavyohanyuma said on Sunday he had fled to Belgium due to the violence, criticising President Pierre Nkurunziza’s bid to stay in power for a third term.
“For the moment, I am forced to stay in Brussels... I stayed here given the difficulties in my country, difficulties which are due to the illegal third mandate of the president,” parliament speaker Pie Ntavyohanyuma told France 24.
Several top officials -- including the deputy vice-president Gervais Rufyikiri as well as members of the election commission and constitutional court -- have also fled the poverty-stricken, landlocked country. “On the eve of the election ... I would like to say to him (Nkurunziza) that the mandate he wants to have is illegal.
“I would like to say to him that forcing through the election is senseless,” Ntavyohanyuma told the broadcaster.
Opponents say his bid for another term is unconstitutional and violates a peace accord that paved the way to end 13 years of civil war in 2006.
UN Secretary General Ban Kimoon has called for the elections due Monday to be delayed after the opposition said they would not take part, as Burundi faces its worst crisis since its civil war ended nine years ago.
But the government has defied all requests for a delay, and the electoral commission said Sunday all was ready for the polls.
“Everything is ready in the country,” election commission chief Pierre-Claver Ndayicariye told reporters on Sunday, saying all voting material had been delivered to the more than 11,000 polling centres across the country.
Failed coup
Three people were killed overnight on Saturday, adding to the more than 70 killed in weeks of violence and a failed coup sparked by President Pierre Nkurunziza’s bid to stay in power for a third term. One was shot while another was killed in a grenade blast, according to witnesses. A soldier was killed accidentally by a comrade during a raid on a house.
Presidential vote
The Parliamentary and local elections set to be held on Monday will be followed by a presidential vote on July 15. The opposition on Friday said it was boycotting the polls, claiming it is not possible to hold a fair vote, with over 127,000 people having fled into neighbouring countries, fearing further violence.