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This article is more than 1 year old

Opposition politicians in Burundi have urged voters to peacefully resist an effort by authorities to “steal power” in a referendum that some fear could spark widespread violence.

Burundians are being asked to vote yes or no to a proposal to extend the presidential term from five years to seven, which would allow the incumbent, Pierre Nkurunziza, to rule for up to 14 more years after his current term expires in 2020.

A yes vote would also boost the president’s powers and allow changes to the distribution of top government posts according to ethnicity. Critics fear this will upset a delicate balance between communities that has preserved peace since the end of a civil war.

Tensions have been running high for months amid a wave of alleged detentions and killings of the government’s perceived opponents. At least 26 people were killed in an attack in the north-western province of Cibitoke on Friday. It is unclear whether the massacre was politically motivated.

Aimé Magera, a spokesman for the National Liberation Forces (FNL), an opposition party, said campaigners for a no vote had made a “massive breakthrough” in recent days. “The people have overcome their fear and come out in huge numbers. We are going to resist right to the end,” he said. “We will show to the international community that the Burundian people are awake and standing and need help.”

On Thursday government officials described long queues of voters waiting “in calm and serenity”. The electoral commission said the vote represented a “historic rendezvous with democracy and the consolidation of national sovereignty”.

“It’s for the people of Burundi to decide about their future and nobody else,” said Gen Evariste Ndayishimiye, the ruling party’s secretary general.

Opposition officials said ruling party volunteers had systematically accompanied voters into booths while many of their own observers had been ejected. There were no reports of violence, however.

Burundi’s government has been under pressure from international institutions and organisations in recent weeks. The UN high commissioner on human rights, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, urged authorities to “assume [their] responsibility in order to ensure Burundi people peace, security and a fully functioning democracy”.

The EU and the US have denounced intimidation, repression and harassment of opposition supporters. Magera said: “We have been beaten, threatened, harassed and attacked. So many have been arrested it is impossible to count.”

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have repeatedly documented widespread abuses by security forces and government-sponsored organisations.

Burundi’s government has said the charges are malicious propaganda spread by exiles. Last week it suspended BBC broadcasts in the country for six months, accusing the corporation of spreading ideas that discredited the president. Voice of America broadcasts were also suspended.

Yves-Lionel Nubwacu, a presidential aide, told the Guardian: “The campaign has been free and contested. All different opinions have been represented on the airwaves … and some of the officials of these international organisations that have been so critical are far from objective.”

Nkurunziza, a former teacher and rebel leader who is the son of a Hutu father and a Tutsi mother, has been in power since 2005. A born-again Christian who won some support with public displays of faith, he was re-elected unopposed in 2010 after the opposition boycotted the vote.

In 2015 he triggered a crisis by pursuing a third term. More than 1,000 people have died and more than 400,000 have fled the country since.

SOS Medias Burundi, a network of independent journalists, reported the arrests of more than 50 members of the opposition coalition Amizero y’Abarundi in a single week last month.

Amnesty International has highlighted the case of Germain Rukuki, a human rights activist who was sentenced to 32 years in prison on charges that included rebellion.

Richard Moncrieff, a regional specialist with the International Crisis Group, said the government was “unravelling the settlement that ended the civil war, and that does not augur well”.

Some opposition figures have called for armed resistance. “We now need ... to remove [Nkurunziza] by use of arms,” said Hussein Radjubu, a former ruling party official who was arrested on treason charges but later escaped from prison. Like many in the fragmented opposition, Radjubu now lives overseas.

Ben Shepherd, an expert in the region at London’s Chatham House, said “one big unanswered question” was the level of popularity of Nkurunziza in rural areas.



“There’s a sense that the ruling party has been seen as fighting the good fight for Burundi’s rural poor,” Shepherd said.

The peace accord that ended the civil war ensured that the national and local government, parliament and the senate are composed of both Hutu and Tutsis, split 60% to 40%. This settlement is now threatened, analysts say.

Other proposed constitutional changes include the appointment of a prime minister by the president, which would consolidate the position of the ruling party and could prevent some opposition politicians from running for office.

Members of the Imbonerakure, the ruling party’s youth wing, have urged supporters to harass opposition members and even to “impregnate” them, and are alleged to have threatened those who appeared unlikely to vote in the referendum.

The ruling party’s secretary general blamed western powers for destabilising Burundi and said those who voted against the proposed changes to the constitution were “enemies of the nation”.</s>BUJUMBURA, Burundi — Burundi is voting in a referendum proposing constitutional changes that could extend the president’s rule until 2034.

Five million people are registered to vote in the referendum amid fears of violence because of President Pierre Nkurunziza’s efforts to prolong his stay in power despite widespread opposition.

Burundi descended into violence in 2015 when Nkurunziza sought a disputed third term.

In Bujumbura, the capital, there are long lines of voters and the security forces have been deployed across the city.

If the results of the referendum go his way, Nkurunziza could get an additional 14 years in power when his current term expires in 2020.

Rights groups cited there have been abuses targeting opponents of the proposed constitutional changes.

It is not clear when final results will be announced.</s>With opposition groups under what rights groups call a campaign of intimidation and abuse, there seems to be little doubt that the reforms will pass.

Nkurunziza is limiting presidential terms to two periods of seven years, but only from the next time he runs for re-election, in 2020.

"He's trying to do what a number of African presidents have done, which is to package what looks like a good democratic reform - i.e. 'I will bring in term limits and make sure they're respected, whilst at the same time, bringing in something that will allow him to extend his own power - i.e. creating longer terms so that he's able to stay in power for a longer period of time," said Nic Cheeseman, Africa specialist at Birmingham University in the UK, in an interview with RFI.

In the referendum campaign, opposition groups have been allowed to rally for the first time since the country’s political crisis started in 2015. But according to Tchérina Jerolon, deputy head of the African office at human rights group FIDH, dissidents have also faced an intimidation campaign.

"A number of militants from the opposition have been arrested,” Jerolon told RFI. “There are a couple of people who were also beaten; there has been a couple of verbal threats pronounced by the ruling party, the CNDD-FDD. Pierre Nkurunziza himself, when he launched the referendum, was very explicit when he stated publicly that those who would oppose the referendum would be exposing themselves to serious consequences."

Burundi’s political crisis started in 2015 when Nkurunziza ran for, and won, a third term, in what many said was an unconstitutional vote.

Emmanuel Dupuy, Africa specialist and head of Paris-based think tank the IPSE, suggested in an interview with RFI that Nkurunziza launched this referendum to bolster his power after the turmoil that started in 2015.

"What is behind all of this is the fact that since the first civil society opposition towards the regime of Nkurunziza in April and May 2015, there was an ongoing uprising, leading to the deaths of more than 1200 people," said Dupuy.

The proposed reforms wouldn’t just lengthen Nkurunziza's time in office. They also allow ethnic quotas - seen as crucial to the peace after Burundi's 1993-2006 civil war - to be revised. They also take powers away from ministers and give them to Nkurunziza.

"He's removing some of the checks and balances that were put in place in the former system to prevent the abuse of power,” said Cheeseman.

“Some of that will be significant but I think that we also need to keep in mind that, although those rules were formally on the books, they weren't really being respected previously – so in some ways what this is, is formalising what was already happening,” he told RFI.

Cheeseman continued: “One of the things that's really worrying though, is the removal of ethnic quotas. These were introduced after a long period of political instability and civil war as a way of giving all communities a stake in the political system.

The idea was: by using quotas, everyone would feel included, everyone would get a share of resources and a share of jobs, and that would prevent a return to conflict. By removing those, he signalling a return to 'winner takes all' politics - and that could have very serious consequences for political stability in Burundi going forward."</s>The citizens of Burundi, the small country in Central Africa that borders Tanzania, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, are about to vote in a controversial referendum.

The vote is likely to result in a set of amendments to Burundi’s constitution that will effectively consolidate the dominance of the ruling party, the National Council for the Defence of Democracy - Forces for the Defence of Democracy, or CNDD-FDD. This is a decisive moment in the country’s history. It may prove to be the final nail in the coffin of the Arusha Accords of 2000, which led to the constitution being ratified in 2005. And it may lead the country further down the path of electoral authoritarianism.

The upcoming poll will, among other things, ask Burundians to vote on whether the president’s term should be extended from five years to seven. This could allow sitting President Pierre Nkurunziza, who has been in power since 2005, to rule for another 14 years when his term expires in 2020.

If the referendum goes Nkurunziza’s way, it will also be a further blow to ordinary Burundians, who live in a state of hardship and adversity. Nearly half a million people have fled the country since 2015 and are now living as refugees in neighbouring countries. Food insecurity is rampant.

The ruling party tried to amend the constitution in a similar fashion in 2014. That was a bid to constitutionally allow Nkurunziza to run for a third term. The attempt failed to gain the necessary political support in parliament.

The party’s decision to select Nkurunziza as their candidate in the 2015 elections anyway was followed by mass protests and demonstrations. Such resistance is unlikely this time around, partly because of the crisis that followed: a trail of assassinations, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, torture and sexual violence against those who raised their voices in opposition.

Nkurunziza has been remarkably successful in neutralising internal opposition during his years in power. He’s also withstood pressure from the region and the international community. Meanwhile, he has gradually undermined the very foundation for the peace that allowed him to lay down his gun and get elected in the first place: the Arusha peace agreement under which the 2005 constitution was ratified.

Burundi’s 2005 constitution was crafted to enable power-sharing between the country’s main ethnic groups, the majority Hutu, and the Tutsi and Twa minorities. This followed a history of ethnicised political conflict and civil war.

The referendum represents a dismantling of the core principles agreed in the peace accords.

The build-up to the referendum has offered ample proof of Burundi’s continually degrading democracy. The campaigns for the constitutional referendum have included divisive language and what amounts to hate speech – this in a country that has experienced cycles of ethnically framed civil war and mass atrocity.

The ruling party and its youth wing, the Imbonerakure, have used violence to threaten and intimidate opponents of the referendum.

The government recently banned the international and national free press, including the BBC and the Voice of America.

And if constitutional amendments go ahead as proposed, there will be a further reversal of Burundi’s democratic gains. As author and scholar Stef Vandeginste has noted, the constitutional reforms do not create a complete upturning of the previous balance of power between Burundi’s ethnic Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority. However, they do cement the power of Nkurunziza’s ruling party through a virtual “one-party system”.

Burundi isn’t the only African state to push through constitutional amendments. Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni passed amendments removing term limits in 2006 and age limits in 2017. Rwanda’s Paul Kagame also scrapped presidential limits in 2015.

The relative calm on the surface of these countries may lend itself to an international agenda of weighing short-term stability over political participation and human and civil rights. It may tempt the idea that perhaps strongmen who serve as presidents for life are simply part of a patrimonialist tradition that’s specific to African democracy.

For Museveni and Kagame, however, the costs of imposing their rule have been relatively low. They have not had a sizeable minority against them. They have remained strong military rulers under a light coating of civilian governance. Their authoritarianism can hold without too much exercise of widespread abuses and atrocities, which gives the impression of stability - at least to observers who are intent on not looking too closely.

Nkurunziza is in a different position. His ruling party has had to share power with others. It is historically riven with internal divisions, as the recent armed conflict and failed coup d’état in 2015 reveal.

He is not a classical founding father, but an everyman who must contend with other leaders in the party and the opposition, with their own sectarian politics, constituents, and charismatic personas.

The Burundian referendum can also be understood as yet another sign of the current global wave of counter-democratisation. There are worrying trends of ascendant authoritarian populist leaders around the world. These are big men like Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines.

One of Burundi’s own international allies, China, has recently scrapped its presidential term limits. This comes at a time when the partnership between Africa and China has begun to eclipse relations with Western governments.

The European Union and the US criticised Nkurunziza’s third term. China did not. It has focused on Burundi’s food and development issues but has largely ignored its political crisis, a strategy that the Burundi government welcomes and interprets as China’s acceptance of its state sovereignty.

Nkurunziza’s advance toward a presidency that could become a lifelong rule is worrying. If the referendum goes his way – and it almost certainly will – more of Burundi’s hard-won democratic freedoms will most likely be sacrificed.</s>KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) - Vote-counting has started in Burundi's referendum on constitutional changes that would extend the president's rule until 2034.

Five million Burundians were registered to vote in Thursday's referendum that raised concerns about further bloodshed in the East African country that has seen deadly political violence since 2015.

It is not clear when final results will be announced.

Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza speaks to the media after casting his vote in the constitutional referendum in Buye, north of Ngozi, in northern Burundi Thursday, May 17, 2018. The country is voting in a referendum proposing constitutional changes that could extend President Pierre Nkurunziza's rule until 2034. (AP Photo/Berthier Mugiraneza)

President Pierre Nkurunziza had campaigned forcefully for the changes that include extending the president's term from five years to seven. That could give him another 14 years in power when his current term expires in 2020.

Opposition leaders say Nkurunziza's stay in power is already unconstitutional. His quest for a disputed third term in 2015 led to violent protests that have killed at least 1,200 people and sent hundreds of thousands fleeing the country.</s>BUJUMBURA, Burundi — Burundi’s voters approved a new Constitution that extends the presidential term from five to seven years, according to provisional figures released on Friday, handing a major victory to President Pierre Nkurunziza.

Mr. Nkurunziza, who beat a two-term limit under the old Constitution through an electoral technicality to take a third term as president, is widely expected to run again, in 2020.

The outcome “opens a chapter of harsh dictatorship, where the president will be beyond any other institution,” Agathon Rwasa, who led the campaign against the new Constitution, said ahead of the provisional results.

Government officials, on the other hand, characterized the new Constitution as an emblem of national sovereignty and a path to a more efficient government.</s>Voters across Burundi on Thursday morning queued to participate in a presidential referendum that is set to extend the mandate of incumbent Pierre Nkurunziza.

Over four million citizens are expected to cast their ballot in a vote that rights groups say have been marred by intimidation of opponents.

If successful, Nkurunziza, who has been in power since 2005, could remain in power until 2034. He was spotted at a polling station in the capital Bujumbura where he cast his ballot.

A known sports enthusiast, the president wore a tracksuit with a cap that had the Burundian flag embossed on it. He has usually appeared sporty for votes. In the case of 2015, he wore a track suit and arrived at the polling station on a bicycle.

If the “yes” side wins – as is largely predicted by groups who say a “no” side is absent given the heavy handed treatment of dissent in the country in the lead up to the vote.

This constitutional change is very controversial. In July 2015 the disputed re-election of Pierre Nkurunziza to a third term plunged the country into a deep political crisis. Hundreds of people have been killed and more than 400,000 civilians have fled the country.

The opposition and civil society decided to boycott the referendum. No international observers were present for this election, which was strongly criticised by Moussa Faki Mahamat, President of the African Union Commission.</s>Today, Burundians voted in a referendum to extend the Presidential term from five to seven years which would allow the incumbent President Pierre Nkurunziza to rule for up to 14 more years after his current term expires in 2020. Jean Regis Nduwimana a former journalist and activist in Burundi joins CNBC Africa as we look at what this means for the country.</s>Burundi’s longest-serving president, Pierre Nkurunziza may rule until 2034 if the country votes YES in a controversial referendum to approve constitutional changes to term limits.

The issue had months and weeks leading to Thursday’s referendum heated up the polity. On Saturday, at least 26 people were killed in the latest of violent incidents after armed attackers reportedly crossing from the Democratic Republic of Congo targeted a village in Cibitoke province, north-west of Burundi.

Nearly five million Burundians were expected to cast ballots in the referendum. And if the votes for ‘yes’ are sufficient enough to approve the proposed changes -which include among other things, whether the length of presidential terms be extended, – Pierre Nkurunziza, recently appointed as the ‘supreme eternal guide’ of Burundi could remain in power until 2034.</s>Rodney Muhumuza And Eloge Willy Kaneza, The Associated Press 

 



BUJUMBURA, Burundi -- Burundians vote Thursday in a referendum that could keep the president in power until 2034 and threatens to prolong a political crisis that has seen more than 1,000 people killed and hundreds of thousands fleeing to neighbouring countries.

Many in this East African nation do not see a positive outcome no matter the results of the vote, which President Pierre Nkurunziza's government forced through despite widespread opposition and the concerns of the United States and others warning of continued bloodshed. The country descended into crisis in 2015 when Nkurunziza pursued a disputed third term.

Now Burundi's 5 million voters are asked to approve a change to the constitution that would extend the length of the president's term from five years to seven and would allow him to stand for two more terms after his current one ends in 2020. Nkurunziza has forcefully urged voters to support the referendum.

"Whoever opposes this election will meet God's power," the president warned earlier this month while campaigning.

Tensions are even higher after unidentified attackers armed with machetes and guns carried out a massacre Friday in the rural northwest near Congo, killing 26 people, many of them children. The government blamed a "terrorist group."

While it is not clear whether the attack was linked to Thursday's referendum, it was "a very dangerous development," United Nations human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein said Tuesday.

Zeid, who has called Burundi one of "the most prolific slaughterhouses of humans in recent times," warned that "everyone will suffer" if Burundi explodes into violence during or after the vote.

Nkurunziza is one of a growing number of African leaders who are changing their countries' constitutions or using other means to prolong their stay in power.

Some in Burundi's opposition, which has faced hate speech from officials including threats of drowning and castration, say they have little choice but to fight back. Boycotting the vote is risky following a presidential decree that criminalized calls to abstain from casting a ballot.

"The only available option now is to use guns and we are determined to use all means to realize our cause," said Hussein Radjabu, who was a Nkurunziza ally before being jailed on treason-related charges. He later escaped from prison and fled the country.

The referendum is rigged in Nkurunziza's favour, Radjabu told The Associated Press by phone.

Burundi's government strongly denies allegations it targets its own people, saying the charges are malicious propaganda spread by exiles.

The international community, however, has long expressed alarm. An estimated 1,200 people have been killed since early 2015, and International Criminal Court judges last year authorized an investigation into allegations of state-sponsored crimes.

As Thursday's referendum approached, Human Rights Watch noted "widespread impunity" for authorities as they tried to swing the vote in the president's favour, citing two recent deaths after beatings allegedly at the hands of state agents.

Opposition leaders call Nkurunziza, declared in March by the ruling party as "supreme guide of all times," a dictator unwilling to leave office.

"President Nkurunziza had declared that he would leave in 2020," Agathon Rwasa, chairman of the Amizero y'Abarundi opposition coalition, told a rally on Monday. "Now he wants to remain in power arguing that he was sent by God" while both the economy and diplomatic relations decline.

Impoverished Burundi has been volatile since the 1990s, riven especially by ethnic discord in the military as Hutu and Tutsi officers jockey for power.

The 54-year-old Nkurunziza, a former rebel leader who is the son of a Hutu father and a Tutsi mother, rose to power in 2005 following the peace deal ending a civil war in which some 300,000 people died. A born-again Christian who won some support with public displays of faith, he was re-elected unopposed in 2010 after the opposition boycotted the vote.

Protests erupted in April 2015 after Nkurunziza said he was eligible for a third term because lawmakers, not the general population, had chosen him for his first term. Critics called a third term unconstitutional, as the deal ending the civil war says the president can be re-elected only once.

Amid the protests, a group of senior armed forces officers attempted a coup. While peace talks between the government and the opposition stalled, Nkurunziza tightened his grip on the army, allegedly by purging officers deemed disloyal, according to the International Federation of Human Rights and local civic groups.

In the streets of the capital, Bujumbura, where the police have increased their presence this week, people say they are worried about what comes next.

One man told the AP he will vote for changing the constitution even though he opposes it because he fears there will be secret cameras spying on people in the voting booth.

"So I will go to vote for 'yes' in order to save my job," the public transport operator said, speaking on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.

Muhumuza reported from Kampala, Uganda. Associated Press writer Ignatius Ssuuna in Kigali, Rwanda contributed.
Voters in Burundi go to the polls for a referendum to amend the constitution to allow current President Pierre Nkurunziza to stay in office until 2034.