Very Controversial Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza Wins Third Term

Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza has won a predicted but controversial third consecutive term in office, according to official election results announced Friday.

Nkurunziza won 69.41 per cent of the vote in Tuesday’s vote, handing him an immediate first-round victory, the election commission said.

He won 16 out of 18 provinces, with the other two taken by his closet rival Agathon Rwasa — who won a total 18.99 percent — even though he had denounced the polls as illegitimate.

Nkurunziza’s candidacy was condemned as unconstitutional by the opposition and provoked months of protests and an attempted coup in the central African nation.

Although eight candidates were on the ballot paper for the presidential polls, most withdrew from the race, with the closure of most independent media preventing them from campaigning.

Anti-Nkurunziza protests have been violently repressed, leaving at least 100 people dead since late April. Many opponents have also fled — joining an exodus of more than 150,000 ordinary Burundians who fear their country may again be engulfed by widespread violence.