Burundian constitutional referendum, 2018 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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To reintroduce the post of Prime Minister, reduce the number of Vice-Presidents from two to one, and increase the presidential term from five to seven years, but restricting a president to two consecutive terms | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Location | ![]() | |||||||||||||||||||||
Date | 17 May 2018 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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This article is part of a series on the politics and government of Burundi |
Constitution |
Judiciary |
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United Nations in Burundi |
A constitutional referendum was held in Burundi on 17 May 2018. [1] The proposed amendments to the constitution were approved by over 70% of voters. [2]
Burundi, officially the Republic of Burundi, is a landlocked country amid the African Great Lakes region where East and Central Africa converge. The capital is Gitega, having moved from Bujumbura in February 2019. The southwestern border is adjacent to Lake Tanganyika.
The proposed changes would reintroduce the post of Prime Minister and reduce the number of Vice-President from two to one. [1] They also involve increasing the presidential term from five to seven years, but restricting a president to two consecutive terms. [1] However, the amendments would also allow incumbent President Pierre Nkurunziza, in office since 2005, to stand for re-election, [3] despite having already served three terms.
This article lists the Prime Ministers of Burundi since the formation of the post of Prime Minister of Burundi in 1961, to its abolition in 1998.
The position of Vice-President of the Republic of Burundi was created in June 1998, when a transitional constitution went into effect. It replaced the post of Prime Minister.
Pierre Nkurunziza is a Burundian politician who has been President of Burundi since 2005. He was the Chairman of the National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD), the ruling party, until he was elected as President of Burundi.
The amendments also reduce the parliamentary majority required to pass legislation. [4]
In December 2017, Nkurunziza threatened people not to campaign against the proposed changes. [4] The official campaign window opened two weeks before the referendum. [4]
Prior to the referendum, the BBC and Voice of America were banned from the country for six months. [5] Radio France Internationale (RFI) received a "warning" about its coverage. [6]
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters are at Broadcasting House in Westminster, London, and it is the world's oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. It employs over 20,950 staff in total, 16,672 of whom are in public sector broadcasting. The total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, and fixed-contract staff are included.
Voice of America (VOA) is a U.S. government-funded international multimedia agency which serves as the United States federal government's official institution for non-military, external broadcasting, the largest U.S. international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content in more than 40 languages which it distributes to affiliate stations around the globe. It is primarily viewed by foreign audiences, so VOA programming has an influence on public opinion abroad regarding the United States and its leaders.
Radio France Internationale generally referred to by its acronym RFI, is a French public radio service that broadcasts in Paris and all over the world. With 35.6 million listeners in 2008, it is one of the most listened to international radio stations in the world, along with BBC World Service, Voice of America and China Radio International.
On 11 May, at least 26 people were killed in Cibitoke Province, allegedly by militiamen from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. [6]
Cibitoke Province is one of the 18 provinces of Republic of Burundi.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, also known as DR Congo, the DRC, DROC, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo, is a country located in Central Africa. It is sometimes anachronistically referred to by its former name of Zaire, which was its official name between 1971 and 1997. It is, by area, the largest country in Sub-Saharan Africa, the second-largest in all of Africa, and the 11th-largest in the world. With a population of over 78 million, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most populated officially Francophone country, the fourth-most-populated country in Africa, and the 16th-most-populated country in the world.
The Burundian opposition coalition, Conseil National pour le Respect de l'Accord d'Arusha pour la paix et la Réconciliation au Burundi et la Restauration de l'Etat de Droit (CNARED) called on the Burundian population to boycott the vote which it accused of being the "death warrant" of the Arusha Accords of 2000 which ended the Burundian Civil War. A Presidential decree threatens three years' imprisonment for anyone convicted of encouraging people not to vote. [6]
Reports from polling stations say some people were being forced to vote to avoid being beaten or arrested. Suspected opponents were "killed, raped, abducted, beaten, and intimidated," Human Rights Watch said in a statement, adding it had documented at least 15 killings, six rapes and eight abductions during voting day. [7]
Choice | Votes | % |
---|---|---|
For | 3,359,493 | 79.08 |
Against | 888,564 | 20.92 |
Invalid/blank votes | 338,673 | – |
Total | 4,586,730 | 100 |
Registered voters/turnout | 4,768,154 | 96.19 |
Source: CENI |
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The National Defence Force is the state military organisation responsible for the defence of Burundi.
Burundi is one of the few countries in Africa, along with its closely linked neighbour Rwanda among others, to be a direct territorial continuation of a pre-colonial era African state.
Domitien Ndayizeye is a Burundian politician who was President of Burundi from 2003 to 2005. He succeeded Pierre Buyoya, as president on 30 April 2003, after serving as Buyoya's vice president for 18 months. Ndayizeye remained in office until succeeded by Pierre Nkurunziza on 26 August 2005.
The Burundian Civil War was an armed conflict lasting from 1993 to 2005. The civil war was the result of long standing ethnic divisions between the Hutu and the Tutsi ethnic groups in Burundi. The conflict began following the first multi-party elections in the country since independence from Belgium in 1962, and is seen as formally ending with the swearing in of Pierre Nkurunziza in August 2005. Children were widely used by both sides in the war. The estimated death toll stands at 300,000.
The National Liberation Front is an ethnically Hutu political party in Burundi that was formerly active as militant rebel group before and during the Burundian Civil War.
A constitutional referendum was held in Egypt on 26 March 2007. The amendments to the constitution were mostly concerning electoral law, and had been passed by Parliament on 20 March 2007. Government critics accused President Hosni Mubarak of deliberately having hastened the schedule in order to make it impossible for them to organise a strong "no" campaign.
The Constitution of Burundi was adopted by referendum on February 28, 2005 and promulgated on March 18, 2005.
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Parliamentary elections were held in Burundi on 29 June 2015. The vote had been initially set for 5 June 2015, alongside local elections, but it was delayed due to unrest. Indirect elections to the Senate occurred on 24 July.
Presidential elections were held in Burundi on 21 July 2015. President Pierre Nkurunziza ran for a third term despite controversy over whether he was eligible to run again. The opposition boycotted the vote, and Nkurunziza won re-election.
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On 13 May 2015, army general Godefroid Niyombare said that he was "dismissing President Pierre Nkurunziza" following the 2015 Burundian unrest. However, the presidency tweeted that the "situation is under control" and there is "no coup".
Godefroid Niyombare is a Burundian military officer who led a coup attempt against President Pierre Nkurunziza on 13 May 2015. At the time of the coup attempt, Niyombare was a Major General. He previously served as military chief of staff and as Burundi's Ambassador to Kenya, and he was head of the National Intelligence Service from December 2014, when he replaced Adolphe Nshimirimana, until February 2015, when he was dismissed by Nkurunziza and replaced by Major-General Moïse Pasteur Bucumi.
Pontien Gaciyubwenge is a Burundian politician and soldier. He served as Minister of National Defence in the government of President Pierre Nkurunziza until he was fired on 18 May 2015, after a failed coup d'état.
The Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland is an amendment to the constitution of Ireland which permits the Oireachtas to legislate for abortion. The constitution had previously prohibited abortion unless there was a serious risk to the life of the mother.
The Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement, widely known as the Arusha Accords, was a transitional peace treaty which brought the Burundian Civil War to an end. The agreement, negotiated in Arusha, Tanzania under the mediation of former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere, were signed on 28 August 2000.
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