The ruling party in Burundi has secured all seats in last week’s parliamentary elections, according to the electoral commission on Wednesday, amid allegations from critics and observers of electoral irregularities.
“Nationally, the CNDD-FDD came first with 96.51 percent of the vote,” Election Commission chief Prosper Ntahorwamiye said in a live televised ceremony.
No other parties achieved the two per cent of votes needed to be represented in the National Assembly, meaning “all 100 seats go to the CNDD-FDD,” he stated.
The Constitutional Council is set to announce the final results of last Thursday’s election on June 20.
Members of the National Congress for Liberty (CNL), the leading opposition party which was excluded from the election, claimed there were incidents of multiple and coerced voting, and the “arbitrary detention” of their observers.
Anicet Niyonkuru, a legislative candidate and the head of the smaller opposition Council of Patriots party, informed AFP that voters placed pre-completed ballots into the ballot box, labelling it “a significant fraud that was witnessed everywhere.”
Olivier Nkurunziza, leader of the Uprona opposition party, which garnered only 1.38 per cent of the vote, claimed the elections were “manipulated.”
He remarked that the CNDD-FDD had obtained 100 per cent of the votes in certain regions, with no invalid ballots, abstentions, or absent voters, despite Uprona presenting at least 50 candidates in each constituency.
Journalists and voters, who chose to remain anonymous for safety reasons, also reported significant irregularities to AFP.
President Evariste Ndayishimiye assumed power in June 2020 following the death of his predecessor, Pierre Nkurunziza, who had governed Burundi with an authoritarian approach for 15 years.
Since taking office, he has oscillated between gestures of openness and a tight grip on power, with human rights violations reported by NGOs and the UN.
His party, the CNDD-FDD, has been accused of undermining its primary opponent, the CNL, which finished second in the previous elections in 2020. At that time, the CNL described the election as a “sham.”
