UN: Burundi sets example

2005-07-06 15:02

Bujumbura - The African Union (AU) envoy to Burundi said on Wednesday, this week's peaceful legislative elections won by the country's main former Hutu rebel group should be an example for other nations in Africa emerging from conflict.

Mamadou Bah said the pan-African body was pleased with Monday's polls, the first for parliament since civil war broke out in the tiny Central African nation in 1993 and a key step in the creation of a post-transition government.

"The AU is satisfied with the way in which Monday's legislative elections were prepared and run," he said. "I think the case of Burundi will serve as an example for other African countries that are still in conflict."

Democracy in Burundi

Bah mentioned the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Sudan and Somalia as possible benefactors from the experience of Burundi and its efforts to restore stability and implant democracy following years of war.

"With the elections, democracy has won in Burundi," he said. "It's the result of a 10-year-old peace process that had cost a lot of effort and resources."

Burundi is still emerging from its ethnically driven war that erupted after the assassination of an elected president from the Hutu majority by the Tutsi-led army and has claimed some 300 000 lives.

Six of the country's seven Hutu rebel groups have laid down their arms as part of the peace process and participated in the election while the lone remaining insurgent faction, the National Liberation Forces (FNL) did not disrupt the polls.

Comfortable victory

Burundi's main Hutu ex-rebel group, the Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD) won a comfortable victory in the elections, winning 58.23% of the vote easily besting its chief rival, transitional President Domitien Ndayizeye's Front for Democracy in Burundi (Frodebu), which took just 22.33%.

The FDD win means the party will take control of the next government which is to be formed in August after representatives elected on Monday and senators chosen by municipal councillors select a new president on August 19.

Under Burundi's constitution, overwhelmingly approved in a February referendum, the new government will be formed by all parties that have won at least 5% of the votes cast in parliamentary elections.

In addition, the government will have a 60-40 split between majority Hutus and minority Tutsis.

- AFP