Voters in Burundi will head to the polls in a couple of weeks to decide whether or not President Pierre Nkurunziza deserves a “second” (or third, if you’re one of those sticklers for “accuracy” or “math” or “reality”) term in office, but meanwhile they voted today in parliamentary elections. Or, rather, some of them did; it’s not clear how many people were willing to brave the risk of, well, dying, so that they could exercise their vote:
At least three polling stations in the capital, Bujumbura, were attacked overnight. Willy Nyamitwe, a senior adviser to the president, contended that the violence was limited, reflecting a small opposition trying to terrorize the population.
“Everyone thought we were going to have a wide war,” he said. “But what happened today was that it was peaceful. And where it was not peaceful, this was coming from the opposition.”
What happened today was peaceful, except where it wasn’t, and where it wasn’t it was all because of the people who for some reason don’t want President Nkurunziza to stay in office indefinitely.
Despite the government’s attempt to portray the opposition as some fringe gang with no muscle, it’s clear that Nkurunziza’s decision to decree that, constitutionally speaking, the number 3 equals the number 2, is still animating a lot of resistance and hostility throughout the country. Late last week, Nkurunziza’s second VP, Gervais Rufyikiri, took off for greener pastures (Belgium, apparently) and urged Nkurunziza to drop his bid of a third term. Meanwhile, there are still about 100,000 Burundian refugees who have fled the violence there to neighboring countries, and that violence has claimed around 70 lives with another 500 or so injured.
The Foreign Exchanges Companion 