Burundian legislative election, 2015
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All 121 seats to the National Assembly 61 seats needed for a majority (21 co-opted) |
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21Parliamentary elections were held in Burundi on 29 June 2015. The vote had been initially set for 5 June 2015, alongside local elections, but it was delayed due to unrest. Indirect elections to the Senate occurred on 24 July.
In the previous legislative election in 2010, the ruling National Council for the Defense of Democracy – Forces for the Defense of Democracy won a large majority. The election was boycotted by most opposition parties following claims of fraud in the local elections held on 24 May. This left the opposition Union for National Progress and Front for Democracy in Burundi–Nyakuri (which were supportive of the ruling party) the only other parties to win seats.
The announcement by the ruling party that the incumbent President of Burundi, Pierre Nkurunziza, would run for a third term in the presidential election, which was planned to be held on 26 June, sparked protest by those who were opposed to Nkurunziza seeking a third term in office.
Critics of the president say his actions jeopardise a peace deal that has kept ethnic tensions in check since the Burundian Civil War ended in 2005 and that Nkurunziza is not constitutionally permitted to seek a third term in office; his supporters argue that his first five-year term should not count because he was elected by a parliamentary vote rather than a popular vote.
Widespread demonstrations in the capital, Bujumbura, lasted for over three weeks. During that time the country's highest court approved Nkurunziza's right to run for a third term in office despite the fact that at least one of court's judges fled the country claiming he had received death threats from members of the government. As a result of the protests the government also shut down the country's internet and telephone network, closed all of the country's universities and government officials publicly referred to the protesters as "terrorists". Since late April tens of thousands of people have fled the country, hundreds of people have been arrested and several protesters and police have been killed while dozens more have been injured.
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