Local elections in Burundi 2010
The local elections in Burundi 2010 took place on May 24, 2010 in central African Burundi and ended after a committed election campaign with gatherings and parades with a widely questioned result of over 70% of the votes cast for the ruling party National Council for the Defense of Democracy - Forces for the Defense of Democracy (NCDD-FDD). The election fraud alleged by the opposition led to the main opposition parties boycotting the parliamentary and presidential elections that were held that year .
Conducting the elections and accusing the opposition
The entire spectrum of parties in the country took part in the local elections. 6900 polling stations had been set up. A committed election campaign with broad participation from the population, in which the conflict between Hutu and Tutsi, which has repeatedly determined Burundi's history , aroused hopes for a fair and democratic ballot. Even the radical, anti-Tuusti Hutu party Palipehutu-FNL , which still supported the so-called Hutu power , took part in the elections.
Chaotic conditions in the polling stations and allegations by the opposition that there were far more voters than were entered in the electoral roll, however, dashed this hope. Election observers from the European Union, who were present in 15 teams in the 6,900 polling stations across the country, described the elections as "on the whole" correct a few days after the election, despite the irregularities their teams found. An assessment that was often cited by the ruling party as legitimation. In contradiction to this, however, the election observers expressed their regret in their final dossier about a "possible change in Burundi to a one-party state ".
Official results
- NCDD – FDD: 70%
- Forces Nationales de Liberation (FNL): 14.15%
- Union for National Progress (UPRONA): 6.25%
Follow the election
The most important result of the elections was not the officially announced number of votes, but the reaction of the opposition parties, which formed an alliance called the Democratic Alliance for Change (ADC) shortly after the polling stations closed and unsuccessfully demanded that the election be repeated. The opposition then boycotted the two national elections in Burundi in 2010, making them sham elections .
swell
- Le Monde diplomatique , December 2010, article: Election farce with Europe's blessing.
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6503C620100601 Reuters, taken on December 12, 2010