Burundi: The hurdles of the ethnic threat

By on June 1, 2010
The ruling party (CNDD-FDD) outstrips widely the national Forces of Liberation ( FNL), the former Hutu rebels, having laid down arms in 2009 and  who collected 14,15 % of the voters.

The Union for the National progress (UPRONA), the main Tutsi representative of the minority, stands in the third position with 6, 25 % of the votes.
The Front for democracy in Burundi (FRODEBU), mainly Hutu , obtained 5,43 % of the votes, the Movement for the solidarity and the development ( MSD), collected 3,75 % and the Union for Peace and  Development ( UPD) obtained 2,21 %.
All the 25 political parties that participated in this primary ballot have called on the 3, 5 million Burundian voters to appoint 2.000 councelors in 129 municipalities of the country. The rate of participation reached 90, 67 %, according to the National Independent Electoral Commission (CNEI).
These primary consultations mark the beginning of an electoral marathon, with presidential election on June 28th and general election on July 23rd, supposed to strengthen the fragile peace agreement, after the ravaging civil war that sparkled from 1993 to 2006.
Unfortunately, there are twelve opposition formations, which made a common declaration, asking for the resignation of the CENI, accused “of incompetence” and of “not being independent”, according to the leader of the FNL party, Agathon Rwasa, who added: ” otherwise, we all  are going to remove out from the electoral process … “
The opposition accuses in particular the CENI of not giving access to the election statements, after four days of the ballot ended, and also asserts that ballots’ bulletins were printed by a Burundian company while the CENI «was asserting up that they had been made abroad “.

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