Opposition rejects term-limit referendum

Burundi remains on a knife-edge following Thursday’s controversial referendum on constitutional reforms that, if passed, will shore up the power of President Pierre Nkurunziza and enable him to rule until 2034. Legalbrief reports that Nkurunziza’s efforts to seek a third term have triggered a political crisis that has left 1 200 people dead and displaced 400 000 others. Provisional returns from all but one of the country's 18 provinces are showing support for the reforms that could see Nkurunziza start two seven-year terms in 2020. Burundi's coalition led by main opposition leader Agathon Rwasa will not recognise the result. He slammed the exercise as a charade, saying ‘the electoral process has been neither free nor transparent, nor independent and still less democratic’. A report on the News24 site notes that he added that he 'rejects the fantasist results that could be proclaimed following this supposed vote'. A report on the eNCA site notes that opposition parties and witnesses claimed polling officials and a feared youth militia had been intimidating voters or going door-to-door to demand people turn out to cast their ballot. It is unclear when results will be announced.

Exiled Burundian activists are urging world leaders to impose more effective sanctions and other measures on Nkurunziza and his government. A report on the Voice of America site notes that Burundian journalist Elyse Ngabire, who fled to France in 2015 after receiving death threats, said the international community must take measures that will force the ruling power into negotiations to end the crisis. Burundian authorities deny they target their own citizens, claiming exiled activists are distorting the issue.

However, as previously reported in Legalbrief Today, Burundi's press regulator earlier this month suspended broadcasts by the BBC and Voice of America by local radio stations ahead of the referendum. Karenga Ramadhani, the head of Burundi's National Communications Council, announced a six-month ban which came into effect a week ago. A report on the News24 site notes that he accused both media houses of ‘breaches of the law governing the press and ethics’. French broadcaster RFI also received a warning for disseminating ‘tendentious and misleading’ information. ‘This is a sign of the times, because even the previous regimes never dared to close the BBC, even during the civil war when it gave voice to the rebels who are now in power,’ a Burundian journalist said on condition of anonymity.