Burundi votes amid grenade attacks
HEAD OF COUNTRY’S PARLIAMENT FLEES, DENOUNCES INCUMBENT PRESIDENT FOR SEEKING THIRD TERM
Voting in Burundi’s controversial elections opened yesterday despite a string of grenade attacks on polling stations, the latest in weeks of violence sparked by the president’s defiant bid for a third term.
Assailants threw grenades in both the capital Bujumbura and at some provincial voting centres ahead of yesterday’s parliamentary and local elections, delaying the start of voting in many areas, police and election officials said.
Another grenade exploded in the capital shortly after voting began.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for the elections 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.
“Armed groups tried to attack polling centres ... they were shooting and threw grenades, but the police stopped them,” deputy police chief Godefroid Bizimana said.
Police patrolled the streets of Bujumbura, especially in opposition areas where the worst violence was seen during weeks of protests. In those areas, few civilians were seen at polling stations.
Stations open late
Stations for the parliamentary and local elections opened late in some areas, although election commission spokesman Prosper Ntahorwamiye insisted that, apart from some delays due to the violence, voting was “going well”.
“Voting has not yet begun in many centres in the capital because election officials are trying to prepare materials and in almost all of the stations, these arrived late because of the overnight attacks,” said election commission chief in Bujumbura, Cyriaque Bucumi.
On the eve of the election, top party official and parliament head Pie Ntavyohanyuma said he had joined some 127,000 other Burundians who have fled the country, denouncing President Pierre Nkurunziza’s “illegal” bid to stay in power for a third term.
Burundi was plunged into turmoil in late April when Nkurunziza launched his drive for a third consecutive five-year term, triggering widespread protests.
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. Presidential polls are due on July 15.
“The mandate he wants to have is illegal. I would like to say to him that forcing through the election is senseless,” Ntavyohanyuma told broadcaster France 24.
More than 70 people have been killed in weeks of violence and a failed coup sparked by Nkurunziza’s bid to stay in power, with a string of grenade attacks in recent days.
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 povertystricken, landlocked country. The African Union has refused to send observers to the polls.
“Noting that the necessary conditions are not met for the organisation of free, fair, transparent and credible elections ... the AU Commission will not observe the local and parliamentary elections,” AU chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said in a statement.
Almost four million people are registered to vote, but the opposition are boycotting the polls, claiming it is not possible to hold a fair vote.