By Spy Correspondent
Bujumbura: Burundi’s constitutional court has rejected an opposition challenge seeking to overturn the results of the country’s presidential election, declaring the governing party’s candidate Evariste Ndayishimiye the winner.
The panel of judges on Thursday ruled that poll fraud complaints
by main opposition leader Agathon Rwasa were “null and
void”, validating Ndayishimiye’s victory with 68 percent of the May
20 vote, as pronounced by the election commission.
Rwasa’s share of the vote diminished further in the final results
to 22.42 percent. Provisional results had given him 24 percent.
The constitutional court – which the opposition has accused of following the governing National Council for the Defense of Democracy–Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD) party’s orders – said Rwasa’s National Freedom Council (CNL) failed to provide sufficient proof of its claims.
Ndayishimiye, 52, a former army general who was handpicked by
senior CNDD-FDD figures to succeed longtime President Pierre Nkurunziza,
will be sworn in in August for a seven-year mandate.
Nkurunziza will step aside after 15 years. His controversial bid
for a third term in 2015 plunged the country into political and economic
chaos.
After a failed military coup and a crackdown by security forces,
hundreds of thousands of people fled to neighbouring countries to escape the
violence.
Human rights groups have alleged widespread abuses by security
forces since the previous poll five years ago.
Following a tense campaign marred by inflammatory rhetoric and
sporadic violence, Rwasa’s National Freedom Council had dismissed the
vote as an “electoral farce”, citing intimidation of voters, the
arrest of opposition polling agents, ballot stuffing and proxy voting.
While the East African Community, a regional body, gave the
election a clean bill of health on Tuesday, the Conference of Bishops of
Burundi criticised the conduct during the polling, saying observers from some
parties had been chased from polling stations.
A joint statement issued by Western diplomats on Wednesday made no
reference to any irregularities and urged the opposition to pursue legal paths
to contest the election outcome.
Five other candidates also stood in the polls, in which 5.11
million registered voters were eligible to participate.
