Three days after Burundi’s interim Constitution came into effect, fighting among the major political parties has not broken out as many people had feared, and leaders who once advocated violence now agree to submit to the constitutional authority.
“People are relieved to see that the political class has finally reached consensus on the Constitution,” said Victor Hatungimana, a trader at a Bujumbura market. “Political leaders are the ones who create the problems in this country. If they can learn to agree, then the problems will end.”
Hundreds of Burundians in the northern province of Kirundo and the southern province of Makamba recently fled to neighbouring Rwanda and Tanzania because of rumours that fighting would break out if new institutions were not elected by November 1 as scheduled. Some refugees have now started returning home.
The election timetable was postponed in October following an emergency regional summit in Nairobi and a special joint meeting of Burundi’s two legislative bodies. The parliamentarians agreed that legislative elections should be held in March next year, followed by presidential elections in April.
A referendum on a draft Constitution has been delayed to November 26 this year. In the interim, it will act as the country’s Constitution.
Tutsi-dominated parties initially disagreed, and their members boycotted the joint session of Parliament. However, on November 1, the day that the transitional Constitution ended, the main Tutsi-dominated parties dropped their objections and agreed to abide by the new interim Constitution.
“There is no longer a threat of a constitutional void as people were dreading,” President Domitien Ndayizeye said on Monday in state broadcast media.
The country’s institutions will be in place until elections in 2005.
The new Constitution lays out power sharing for the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups at a ratio of 60 to 40, respectively. It stipulates that the country have two vice-presidents; the previous transitional Constitution stipulated only one.
The organisation of the military will undergo drastic change. Doors will open to what has been an army dominated by Tutsis. Many former combatants, particularly Hutus, will be able to join.
Tutsi-dominated parties had little choice but to accept the interim Constitution, Alphonse Rugambarara, chairperson of Inkizo — one of the Tutsi-dominated parties — said on Tuesday on Isanganiro, a local radio station.
“We either accepted it or resigned from the country institutions,” he said.
However, he said Inkizo will still try to have amendments made to the final Constitution before it comes into effect. — Irin