Burundi's electoral crisis – back to power-sharing politics as usual?

Abstract

On 24 April 2015, the ruling partyConseil national pour la défense de la démocratie - Forces pour la défense de la démocratie (CNDD-FDD) designated incumbent President Pierre Nkurunziza as its candidate for the forthcoming presidential elections, despite the fact that he had already completed two terms in office. The announcement that Nkurunziza planned to take a third term triggered an unprecedented series of demonstrations in Bujumbura, Burundi's capital city. Two months later, the country experienced several weeks of violent confrontation between the police and primarily young urban protesters, a failed coup d'état, and repeated delays of the elections. Around seventy people were killed in the pre-electoral violence and close to 100,000 people crossed the border, mostly to Rwanda and Tanzania.