Burundi’s election wobbles as opposition firm on boycott

• Parties claim May local polls were rigged and pull out from presidential race

BUJUMBURA, Friday

Allegations of massive fraud during May’s local elections in Burundi have cast a shadow over the country’s democratic transition, prompting international calls for compromise rather than confrontation.

Attributing the ruling CNDD-FDD’s landslide victory to ballot-box stuffing, vote-buying with state resources, the illegal use of proxies and a lack of secrecy in some polling stations, 13 opposition parties have announced a boycott of the June 28 presidential race, leaving President Pierre Nkurunziza as the only contestant.

Now grouped under the Alliance of Democrats for Change, the parties also want a re-run of the local elections and for the “incompetent” and “complicit” electoral commission to be replaced.

“It’s unfortunate how the elections have progressed thus far in Burundi,” Nyambura Githaiga, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies told IRIN.

Fraud allegations

“With the fraud allegations, boycott by opposition and ban on political rallies, political rifts are deepening with the polarising of adopted stances,” she said.

“If the stand-off between the government and the opposition persists and the (presidential) elections are held as planned, the opposition may be left with the choice of either entrenching the boycott or disrupting the polls. In any event, due to Burundi’s history, security is likely to pose a major challenge to both sides.”

Since the late 1950s, this history has been dominated by armed conflict driven by power struggles between the Tutsi minority and Hutu majority. The last of the densely populated country’s rebel groups, the National Liberation Forces (FNL), finally threw in the towel and became a political party in 2009.

Civil disobedience

Describing the country’s current political situation as a “crisis” and “an impasse”, university lecturer and political analyst Simeon Barumwete said Burundi was at risk of “civil disobedience that could result in serious social unrest as the local elections created a lot of frustrations”.

“Parties could call all their supporters to rebel against the elected institutions, especially in opposition strongholds such as Bujumbura and Bururi,” Barumwete said.

On a brief visit to Burundi on June 9, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon noted “the important progress in consolidating peace” through elections in 2005.

“In any democratic country, elections generate excitement, dynamism and sometimes tension,” he said. “If there is any allegation of fraud, harassment or intimidation, those claims should be raised and brought to concerned institutions.”

With regard to the looming boycott he said: “I must underscore the importance of an inclusive process, and of accepting the democratic will of the people as expressed through that process.”

Ban said “a spirit of compromise” was needed to give Burundians “vital peace dividends” such as “recovery, reconciliation, reform, economic development and an end to impunity”.

Local and international election observers gave the May 24 election a largely clean bill of health. The minor problems recorded were neither malicious nor influential on the result, they said.

Accepting that “some irregularities” had occurred, electoral commission spokesman Prosper Ntahorwamiye said these needed to be analysed to see if they had influenced the outcome of the poll.