Burundi’s new constitution which allows for changes to be made to presidential term limits in the central African country has been approved by voters in last week’s referendum.
The country’s electoral commission said on Monday that 73 percent of voters voted in favour of amendments extending the presidential term from five to seven years.
That means current President Pierre Nkurunziza could seek two more terms, beginning in 2020 and can see him stay in power until 2034.
The chairman of the electoral commission Pierre Claver Ndayicariye told reporters that 96 percent of the 4.7 million registered voters participated in the referendum.
Meanwhile the opposition has rejected the results with a leading opposition politician, Evariste Ngayimpenda, claiming that the “process was tainted with many incidents including arrests, imprisonments and killings”.
“We reject these results and we will file a complaint because the process was marred by lot of irregularities, even during the counting of the votes,” he said.
President Pierre Nkurunziza has been in power since 2005 but his desire to extend his rule has sparked series of violence.
Source: Africafeeds.com
