Post-vote clashes erupt
2010-05-30 10:13
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Bujumbura - Clashes erupted in Burundi's capital on Saturday in the first violence linked to last week's disputed local polls, with several people wounded and arrested, an opposition party and officials said.
The election commission has announced the ruling party won more than 60% of Monday's vote but eight opposition groups allege there was massive fraud and have demanded a re-run.
The opposition National Liberation Forces (FNL) said people began demonstrating in Bujumbura's Kinama quarter when they found "several ballot boxes filled with balloting papers, some of them not counted."
"The people protested and the policed intervened," said party spokesperson Jean-Bosco Havyarimana, adding that senator Petronie Habanabashaka and 50 party activists were taken in by police.
National deputy director of police Gervais Ndirakobuca denied the senator was arrested although he refused to say how many people had been detained.
Angry crowd
The area's administrator Emile Ndayarinze said police rounded about a dozen people.
"Election commission agents were collecting election material used in Monday's vote. A large crowd arrived and started hurling stones at these agents and police fired in the air to disperse the crowd," he said.
This was followed by a "real riot - the Kinama market was looted and was closed in the afternoon, police and civilians were wounded and a dozen ringleaders were arrested," he said.
The FNL, a former rebel group, said boxes filled with votes were also found in other provinces.
The allegations were rejected as "lies" by the election commission president, Pierre Claver Ndayicariye.
The commission says President Pierre Nkurunziza's CNDD-FDD party won 64.03% of the votes, trailed by the FNL which mustered 14.15%.
The May 24 polls were seen as key popularity test for Nkurunziza and his main challengers at the start of an election marathon that will include presidential and parliamentary polls.
The peace process ongoing since the end of Burundi's 13-year civil conflict in 2006 has in many respects been a success story but observers have been concerned that election tensions could boil over.
