Burundians have overwhelmingly voted for constitutional reforms
bolstering President Pierre Nkurunziza's powers and giving him the
option to stay in power until 2034, official results showed Monday.
Election
commission chief Pierre-Claver Ndayicariye said 73 per cent of voters
had voted "Yes" in a referendum to change the constitution, and 19 per
cent had voted "No."
The turnout was 96 per cent, he said.
The
results — which exclude figures from the diaspora representing 0.27 per
cent of the vote — are provisional and must be validated by the
constitutional court within nine days.
Observers had
widely expected the reforms to pass, partly due to support Nkurunziza
still holds in rural areas, but also due to a three-year crackdown on
dissent.
Nkurunziza, 54, who has been in power since
2005, plunged his tiny East African nation into crisis in 2015 when he
sidestepped a constitutional two-term limit, arguing his first term came
after an election by parliament.
The move sparked angry protests, a government crackdown, coup
attempt and widespread abuses which prompted the International Criminal
Court to launch a probe into the atrocities.
This angered Burundi, which became the first country to withdraw from the ICC.
At least 1,200 people have died and 400,000 been displaced, according to the ICC.
The
constitutional reforms, which include measures that hand more power to
Nkurunziza and his ruling CNDD-FDD, change term limits to seven years,
meaning he could start again from scratch in 2020.
Critics say the referendum has struck a death blow to the Arusha peace deal, signed in 2000.
The
accord ended Burundi's 1993-2006 civil war and ushered in measures to
ensure power would not be concentrated in either the hands of the
majority Hutu or minority Tutsi, after decades of violence between the
communities.
No comments :
Post a Comment