Burundians lined up before dawn on Monday to vote on a Constitution that enshrines Hutu control of Parliament and the government after decades of minority Tutsi dominance.
About 3,1-million of Burundi’s estimated six million people registered to vote in the referendum, which will determine the fate of a Constitution that reserves 60% of seats in the government and Parliament for Hutus and 40% for Tutsis — the current distribution under an interim Constitution. The Tutsi minority had dominated politics since independence from Belgium in 1962.
A simple majority is needed for the referendum to pass. If voters reject the proposed final Constitution, the interim charter will remain in force until elections are held for Parliament in March and for president in April — and the new government will then draft a Constitution that will be submitted for another referendum.
The referendum and elections are part of a peace process intended to end Burundi’s 11-year war between the Tutsi-dominated army and rebels from the Hutu majority. The last holdout Hutu rebel group pledged not to disrupt the referendum, saying it hopes the new Constitution will clear the way for the election of a new government with which it could negotiate a political settlement.
Progress toward peace in Burundi could boost efforts to end fighting elsewhere in the vast and troubled Great Lakes region, which includes Congo, Rwanda and Uganda.
Burundi’s 2 100 polling stations opened at 6am for 10 hours. Initial results will be released on Tuesday and final results are expected to be published on Friday, said Father Aster Kana, spokesperson of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
There have been no surveys to indicate whether the voters are likely to endorse the Constitution. There were signs on Monday, though, that Tutsis are sceptical.
”I am here to cast my ballot and I will vote no because I don’t know the contents of the Constitution … because officials did not make efforts to educate us on what is in the Constitution,” said Immaculate Sindayihebura, a Tutsi civil servant.
The main Tutsi parties had urged a no vote, saying the Constitution was imposed by outsiders — mediators of the 2000 peace deal that was signed in Arusha, Tanzania. They also branded it pro-Hutu.
Unidentified assailants lobbed three grenades at a polling station two hours before polls opened in southern Burundi. No one was injured, though electoral workers were there, electoral chief Paul Ngarambe said.
Two Tutsis were later arrested as they tried to distribute 584 unmarked ballot papers to voters, electoral officials said.
Hutu soldier Eric Bigirumuhirwa was voting yes.
”This vote for me means we need get a Constitution and a government of national unity that will work to end this war. And I will be able to rest after six years I have been fighting,” Bigirumuhirwa, dressed in civilian clothing, said after casting his ballot.
President Domitien Ndayizeye and the former main rebel leader Pierre Nkurunziza, both Hutus, displayed the indelible ink that marked their thumbs to prevent multiple voting.
”Burundians are now ready to enter a new phase of peace and democracy, which begins with this referendum,” Ndayizeye said. ”I thank the international community for supporting us since the process begun.”
Authorities were to enforce a dusk-to-dawn curfew in one of Burundi’s 17 provinces shortly after polls close as votes are counted in the region where a holdout rebel group is still active, said Colonel Donatien Sindakira, Minister of Public Security.
Civil war broke out in Burundi in October 1993 after Tutsi paratroopers assassinated the country’s first democratically elected leader, a Hutu.
More than 260 000 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the conflict as it raged across verdant hills, terraced valleys and along the shores of Lake Tanganyika. — Sapa-AP