Burundi election: Votes counted as Pierre Nkurunziza seeks third term

Unlike the capital city, a high turn-out was reported in Nkurunziza’s hometown of Ngozi in northern Burundi where the president voted at Buye Fondamental School polling center.

Overnight, two people – a police officer and a civilian – were killed in separate incidents in pre-election violence, authorities said.

“We see the shooting last night as a kind of intimidation”, said 32-year-old Desire Kabaya in Nyakabiga.

At least 70 people have been killed in protests since Mr Nkurunziza announced in April that he was running for a third term.

“They have refused to save Burundi from sliding into an abyss”, said opposition leader Jean Minani, who like nearly all others boycotted Tuesday’s poll.

Voters queued outside polling stations in some rural areas and districts of Bujumbura that are strongholds of Nkurunziza supporters. A group of women chanted “we need justice and truth” near the body before the Red Cross took it away.

Regional leaders have called for a delay to the election and for CNDD-FDD to agree to form an inclusive government including opposition groups, as well as allowing AU experts in to disarm militias. Results are expected in two days, he said.

The US state department said elections held in these conditions “will not be credible and will further discredit the government”.

More than 170,000 Burundians have fled the nation of 10 million to refugee camps in Tanzania, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo. The U.S.is considering sanctions, including visa bans for those found responsible in the promotion of instability in the country, he said.

Votes are being counted in Burundi, where pre-election violence has caused thousands of people to leave the country in the past few months.

Election monitors and representatives of the major parties look on as votes are read out after polls closed in the Vugizo neighborhood in the suburb of capital Bujumbura, Burundi, July 21, 2015. “The elections are just a masquerade because only one party is competing”, he said.

Former colonial ruler and key donor Belgium said the polls “do not meet the minimal requirements of inclusiveness and transparency”, and repeated warnings it would “review its cooperation” with Bujumbura.

One 40-year-old voter in Bujumbura, Ferdinand, said he would vote for Nkurunziza, a soccer fan who is often pictured rolling up his sleeves to work with people in the fields, because he had “a good program of development for ordinary citizens”.

The opposition have denounced the candidacy of the incumbent president as unconstitutional and a violation of the 2006 peace deal that ended a dozen years of civil war and ethnic massacres in 2006.