Nation clears constitutional referendum, looks ahead to presidential poll

Based on interim results announced on Tuesday, 91.2 percent of Burundi's estimated three million registered voters polled "yes" for a new constitution that slashes the imbalance of power between the minority Tutsis and the majority Hutus; the country's main ethnic groups. "This is a new beginning that will be a very big contribution for conflict resolution not only in Burundi but in the whole subregion of the Great Lakes," said Ramadhani Karenga, the spokesperson for the Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Forces pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD), formerly the largest rebel faction in the country. The key elements in the constitution are its power sharing arrangements. The president, to be elected by parliament from the winning political party, must have as one of his deputies someone of a different ethnic group and political party. In addition, the new constitution provides for a 60-percent Hutu 40-percent Tutsi representation in all institutions of government, except the army and the police where the ratio is 50-50. This gives greater power to the Hutu who had, despite their superior number, been the political underdogs of the two ethnic groups. The Hutus make up at least 85 percent of the eight million Burundians while the Tutsi, who have dominated leadership since independence from Belgium in 1962, represent 14 percent and the Twa, mostly hunter-gatherers, account for 1 percent. The Twa claim to have been marginalized by both parties. Another key feature of the new constitution is the provision of a 30-percent women's representation in all government institutions. "This is the first time in Burundi's history that women are getting a major representation," Karenga said. The chairwoman of the Association of Women Lawyers, Majorie Niyungeko, said, "This is an important step because there has never been such a provision in previous constitutions, although we would have preference to have a higher percentage." Now that the majority of Burundians voted "yes" in the referendum, women would like to see the provision implemented, she said, and appealed to the electoral commission to ensure the provision was implemented. Since the new constitution provides for two vice-presidents, one of them should be a woman, Niyungeko said. She said women wanted the commission to ensure that the 30-percent equation would also be applicable to individual political parties, a measure that would ensure that more women would gain political leadership at the highest levels. She said women were now conscious that they held such potential political power; their votes could not be taken for granted. Meaning of the voter turnout The CNDD-FDD faction, led by Pierre Nkurunziza who is now the minister of state in charge of governance has, since signing a power-sharing agreement with the transitional government in 2003, reformed from rebel group to a political party. It advocated a "yes" vote in Monday's referendum. Karenga said the huge voter turnout for the referendum was testimony that the country's security situation had improved greatly, especially in the province of Bujumbura Rural. He attributed this to what he said was the "neutralisation" of the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL); the only rebel group that has not signed a peace deal with the transitional government. Karenga also said the massive police presence near polling booths had enhanced security. Fears that the FNL would disrupt the plebiscite did not materialise. The rebel group had pledged it would not disrupt the polls. Now that the hurdle of the constitutional referendum has been cleared, the next are the parliamentary and legislative polls scheduled for April. So, far, the FNL has not yet given an undertaking to allow those processes to proceed without disruption. Beyond the local implications of the success of the referendum, Karenga said he hoped the polls would "serve as an impetus to other countries in the region, such as the DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo], that are going through a process similar to this one of ours." Despite Karenga's optimistic view of the situation at home, and despite the high "yes" vote, other stakeholders in Burundi's political process had advocated a "no" vote, arguing that the constitution was exclusionist and dictatorial. However, the coordinator of the Centre for the Alert and Prevention of Conflict, Charles Ndayiziga, said the 'no'" vote would have no impact on the country's peace process. He said even Tutsi parties that called for the "no" vote knew the "yes" vote would win since they had lost the struggle for the amendment of the constitution long ago. Ndayiziga said the only reason these parties called for a "no" vote was to measure their capacity to mobilise the public. Moreover, results from some Tutsi populated areas - such as Bisoro Commune in Mwaro Province - showed that the "no" vote did not even attract 10 percent of the electorate. Reaction to the poll Reacting to the poll's results, the chairman of one of the Tutsi-dominated parties, PARENA, Jean-Baptiste Bagaza told reporters Monday in the capital, Bujumbura, that many flaws had marred the referendum. "I went out of the voting bureaux [booth] with the yes and no votes and nobody stopped me, it means everybody else could have done the same," Bagaza said. "There was no sense of secrecy during the polls." He also accused the CNDD-FDD of intimidating voters and compelling them to vote "yes". In some regions, he said, many CNDD-FDD ex-combatants were still deployed and they threatened people with execution if they voted "no". The chairman of the Coalition of the Civic Society for the Monitoring of Elections in Burundi, Jean Marie Vianney Kavumbagu, told IRIN on Tuesday that in spite of some irregularities, the vote was fair. The coalition had deployed 740 observers countrywide. The referendum is one of the requirements to bring about a democratically elected government, in accordance with a Peace and Reconciliation Accord signed by Burundian parties in August 2000 in Arusha, Tanzania. The accord provides for a three-year transitional government that should have ended in October 2004. However, the electoral timetable was delayed several times because of disagreements over the details of the new constitution. This resulted in an extension of the transitional period until April 2005, to facilitate the holding of Monday's referendum and the general elections in April. If all goes as scheduled the elections could usher an era of sustained peace after an 11-year civil war in which an estimated 300,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed. Civil war broke out in the country in October 1993 after Tutsi paratroopers killed the first democratically elected leader, Melchior Ndadaye, a Hutu. The war then pitted the Tutsi-dominated army against several Hutu rebel groups. Monday's referendum thus marked the first time that Burundians have voted since Ndadaye's death. Karenga said with the yes vote secured in the referendum, it was now up to President Domitien Ndayizeye and the Independent National Electoral Commission, or CENI, to fix a definite election timetable. "We don't see any reason to have another delay [in holding the elections]," Karenga said. "Even if the timeframe looks tight, some of these elections can be combined."