Burundi election chaos
2010-06-05 13:35
Bujumbura - Burundi's main Tutsi party on Friday followed five opposition parties in pulling out from the central African nation's June presidential poll, leaving serving leader Pierre Nkurunziza as the sole candidate.
Uprona "has decided to withdraw its candidature from the June 28 presidential election," party leader Bonaventure Niyoyankana told a press conference on Friday night.
"Of course our candidate Yves Sahinguvu is aware of this decision ... rest assured, he will withdraw his candidature," Niyoyankana said.
Sahinguvu is Burundi's first vice-president.
A close aide to Sahinguvu who attended the political bureau meeting where the withdrawal decision was taken, told AFP that Sahinguvu "is ready to respect his party's decision".
Political crisis
Niyoyankana said his party took the decision because of "the serious political crisis triggered by the fraudulent elections on May 24 and in view of the fact that complaints submitted to the Electoral Commission got no follow up".
The Uprona candidate is following in the footsteps of five other opposition candidates, including Agathon Rwasa, the chief of the former rebel National Liberation Forces (FNL), who withdrew on Tuesday on the grounds it had been "rigged" in advance.
The decisions to pull out come in the wake of accusations of massive rigging by the ruling party, the National Council for the Defence of Democracy - Forces for the Defence of Democracy (CNDD-FDD) in the local elections on May 24.
Uprona on Wednesday had joined fellow opposition parties in calling for the local polls to be annulled, but had hesitated over whether to pull out of the presidential election.
CNDD-FDD won the local elections with 64% of the vote, way ahead of the FNL which got 14%.
Poll assurances
The local polls were the first stage in a four-month electoral marathon crucial for this small country struggling to emerge from more than a decade of civil war.
Niyoyankana said his party might come back into the race if certain conditions are met, among them assurances "that the poll will be well-organised ... that there won't be any fraud".
Earlier Friday the electoral commission chief called on those candidates who withdrew to change their minds.
- SAPA
