Burundi votes in controversial presidential election

Willy Nyamitwe, Nkurunziza’s chief communications advisor, condemned the attacks as “terrorist acts” aimed at “intimidating voters”. “They don’t want the voters to go to the polls”, he said.

More than two months of anti-Nkurunziza protests, which have often been violently repressed, have left at least 100 dead since late April. A police source confirmed the victim was part of the opposition.

Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary-general, has called on authorities to do all in their power to ensure security and a peaceful atmosphere during the election.

Opposition and civil society groups have denounced Nkurunziza’s candidacy as unconstitutional, while global observers have said the elections are not free and fair.

A crowd blocked a thoroughfare with rocks and women chanted “We need justice and truth” near the body, before the Red Cross took it. Results are expected in two days, 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.

“The government’s insistence on going forward with presidential elections risks its legitimacy in the eyes of its citizens and of the worldwide community”, U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

The US State Department issued a statement saying that the vote will lack credibility, and threatened to impose visa restrictions on those promoting instability in the country.

Flanked by bodyguards jogging or walking alongside him, Nkurunziza cycled to a polling station in his northern home village of Buye, which was filled with soldiers.

Independent media has been shut down and many opponents have fled – joining an exodus of more than 150,000 Burundians who fear their country may again be engulfed by widespread violence.

“Despite a facade of pluralism, this is an election with only one candidate, where Burundians already know the outcome”, said the ICG’s Thierry Vircoulon.

Former colonial ruler and key aid 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.

“We have to allow the Burundian people to vote or to choose someone they trust, and also to choose the programme that suits them best”, said President Nkurunziza.

Opponents say the president’s re-election bid undermines a peace deal that ended a civil war between rebel groups of the Hutu majority and the army, led then by the Tutsi minority.

The tension worries neighboring Rwanda, which has the same ethnic mix and suffered a genocide in 1994 that killed 800,000, mostly Tutsis as well as moderate Hutus.