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Burundi ‘senators for life’ could be dropped

Saturday January 06 2018
BUR_PIX

Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza. He has backed constitutional changes so that he can rule until 2034. PHOTO | CARL DE SOUZA |

By MOSES HAVYARIMANA

Burundi has started campaigns for a draft constitution ahead of a referendum next year.

While the draft has drawn controversy as it would help President Pierre Nkurunziza’s stay in office, it also seeks to bar former presidents from automatically becoming senators for life.

Njangwa Becaud, one of the 15 members who drafted the proposed law, said the move would promote democracy by having the senators directly elected.

This would bar Domitien Ndayizeye and Silvestre Ntibantuganya from being senators.

Mr Ntibantunganya has said that when the Arusha Accord was negotiated in 2005 to save the country from civil war, it was found necessary to keep former presidents in the Senate, where they can use their experience to help stabilise the country.

But critics say the change is meant to sideline former presidents from the political mainstream so that they do not cause problems for incumbents.

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In the current Constitution, Article 180(3), allows former heads of state to automatically become senators after leaving office.

But Article 185 (1) of the draft Constitution indicates that the Senate is composed of two delegates from each province, elected by Electoral College that is composed of members of the municipal council, from different ethnic groups and elected by separate ballots.

Burundi opposition leader and deputy Speaker of Parliament Agathon Rwasa has protested that the process to amend the Constitution and has termed the referendum illegal.

“The launch of the consultations first of all is illegal because under the electoral code article 200 the  president should have consulted the bureau of Parliament.”

The draft proposes to scrap article 96 that restricts the president to two terms of five years each in office. If passed, that would leave President Nkurunziza eligible to run when the current term ends in 2020.

READ: Nkurunziza focuses on 2020 elections, starts raising funds

Presidential term limits fuelled the political instability in the country with a dispute on whether the incumbent President Nkurunziza was supposed to run for a third term in office in 2015.

Since then more than 500 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands have fled to neighbouring countries. Government has however said the security situation in the country has improved.

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