BUJUMBURA, Burundi
The Burundian government pledged Tuesday to publish a new timetable for parliamentary and presidential elections, based on recommendations made by the East African Community summit held last Sunday to solve the country's crisis.
“The government has asked the authority supervising the elections to begin, as quickly as possible, the production of a new election timetable taking into account the recommendations arising from the East African Community summit,” a government statement said. “Participation in the elections is one the guaranteed rights of all citizens.”
The statement comes at a time of protests against the nomination of President Pierre Nkurunziza for a third presidential term, a move which the opposition describes as “unconstitutional.”
For his part, the president of the Independent National Electoral Commission said in a press statement Tuesday that the new election times will be announced within two days.
Last Sunday, the heads of state of Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and Tanzania, in addition to representatives from Burundi and Rwanda, met to reach a solution for the political crisis which has shaken Burundi since April 2014 – the date of the official announcement of Nkurunziza’s nomination.
According to a statement from Richard Sezibera, the Rwandan secretary general of the East African Community that organized the summit, heads of state had three core recommendations: delaying elections in Burundi by at least a month and a half, disarming armed youth groups as soon as possible, and encouraging Bujumbura, the Burundian capital, to “create an appropriate climate for Burundian refugees to return to their country.”
A few hours after the release of the statement on Sunday, Burundian government spokesman Philip Nkurunziza announced in a press statement that Bujumbura “accepted the recommendations issued by the Dar es Salam summit, as the proposed period (a month and a half) falls within the limits of the constitution.”
According to the previous timeline, the parliamentary and local elections were expected to take place on June 5, 2015, and the presidential elections on June 26.
For its part, the Burundian opposition expressed its “disappointment” regarding the recommendations arising from the regional summit.
Burundi has been rocked by protest since the ruling the National Council for the Defense of Democracy – Forces for the Defense of Democracy named President Pierre Nkurunziza – in power since 2005 – its candidate for the June presidential polls.
The situation took a turn for the worse earlier last month when a group of army generals staged a failed coup attempt against Nkurunziza while he was attending a regional summit in Tanzania.
The opposition says Nkurunziza does not have the right to seek a third term, citing Burundi's constitution, which limits the number of terms a president can serve to two.
However, Burundi's Constitutional Court recently ruled that Nkurunziza's third-term bid would not violate the constitution.
The court ruled that, since he was elected in 2005 by parliament and not by the people, Nkurunziza's first stint in office should not be counted as a first presidential term per se.
