Order, for now Burundi accepts the results of a contested election

The Burundi election drama appears to be coming to an acceptable end, based on the people’s choice for peace over democratic practice for the moment.

President Pierre Nkurunziza was appointed to a five-year term in 2005, then elected to the office in 2010. The country’s constitution limits a president to two terms. Because he was not elected the first time, Mr. Nkurunziza said he would run for a third term. His opponents cried foul and some violence followed.

He nonetheless insisted on going to the ballot box July 21; he won 69 percent of the vote. Many of the other candidates and their parties boycotted the elections. The African Union, the United Nations and the European Union announced that they did not consider the elections to be valid, based on intimidation and other undemocratic actions taken by Mr. Nkurunziza’s government and party.

Some expected that the lid would blow off Burundi, given its history of violence which dates from independence in 1962. Many of the clashes in the past centered on ethnic divisions, since 85 percent of the people are Hutus and 14 percent are Tutsis, groups that have fought bitterly.

After the elections, however, it’s been so far, so good. The opposition to Mr. Nkurunziza was led by secondplace finisher Agathon Rwasa, who received 19 percent of the vote. On Monday, Mr. Rwasa took his seat in parliament and said he would not oppose formation of a unity government so long as it prepared for new elections.

Mr. Nkurunziza remains an irresponsible leader who aspires to the lifetime rule of other African presidents such as Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Paul Biya of Cameroon and Paul Kagame of neighboring Rwanda. The people of Burundi presumably have had enough violence to cause them to accept, at least in the short term, a denial of democracy in the name of peace and relative quiet. For them it was probably a wise course.