Burundi to vote in tense poll amid virus outbreak

Burundians will vote Wednesday in a tense general election, despite a largely-ignored outbreak of coronavirus which is set to be the first major challenge for the new president.

Burundi has pushed forward with the vote at all costs despite the coronavirus, with heaving crowds of thousands attending political rallies. AFP/- “Do not be afraid. God loves Burundi and if there are people who have tested positive, it is so that God may manifest his power in Burundi,” said General Evariste Ndayishimiye, the presidential candidate for the ruling CNDD-FDD party.With a possible major health crisis looming, the nation with a population estimated at roughly 11 million people is preparing to turn the page on Nkurunziza’s long rule, marked by widespread human rights violations.

The UN and rights organisations attribute much of the violence to the Imbonerakure, members of the ruling party’s youth wing which the UN describes as a militia, as well as the feared national intelligence agency which answers directly to the president, the police, and to a lesser extent the army. While Ndayishimiye is seen as the frontrunner, his main rival among six other candidates, Agathon Rwasa, has mobilised large crowds at his rallies.Rwasa comes from the country’s oldest ethnic Hutu rebel movement Palipehutu-FNL which he led in the early 2000s. It was one of the two main rebel groups during Burundi’s 1993-2006 civil war, which pitted Hutu rebels against the minority Tutsi-dominated army. The war left more than 300,000 dead.

The campaign was marked by violence such as clashes between the members of rival parties and the arrests of opposition members.

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