Bujumbura- Burundi capital, Bujumbura, has been tangled in protests after President Pierre Nkurunziza’s ruling party, the National Council for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD), nominated him on Saturday to seek a third term in the forthcoming June 26 elections.
The party announced last Saturday that Mr Nkurunziza had been nominated unanimously and unopposed during a retreat for party leaders.
On the streets of Bujumbura, armed police were immediately deployed after the announcement.
The government has now banned all protests, and yesterday shut down Burundi’s main independent radio station, African Public Radio, known as “voice of the voiceless” after police accused it of links to an insurrection.
Broadcasts by the station’s studios outside of the capital have also been halted, with station officials saying they had been accused of “complicity and participation in an insurrectional movement”.
Relatives of Sunday’s slain demonstrators told AFP that they were shot at close range by police.
By press time, six people had been reported dead as a result of the protests and hundreds had fled to neigbouring Rwanda for safety.
Burundi’s constitution stipulates that a President “is elected by universal direct suffrage for a mandate of five years renewable one time,” but Mr Nkurunziza’s supporters say he is eligible to serve a third term because he was first installed as President in 2005 by Parliament to lead a transitional government, and not by a popular vote.
Mr Nkurunziza then won the 2010 election as the sole candidate after opposition members boycotted, saying they feared it would be rigged.
A senior police official told AFP news agency that at least 320 people, including a prominent human rights activist Mr Pierre Claver Mbonimpa, have been arrested in the unrest.
The background
Mr Nkurunziza, a former rebel leader, has served two terms as president, coming to the office at the end of the conflict.Those who oppose Mr Nkurunziza are mainly members of his own party, including lawmakers, the clergy, student groups.
Opposition says Mr Nkurunziza’s bid threatens a peace deal that ended the 12-year civil war in 2005. More than 300,000 people died between 1993 and 2005 in the conflict.
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