A senior opposition official in Burundi on Saturday criticised the African Union for describing the country’s election as “credible” despite widespread claims of irregularities and intimidation during the vote.
The Peace and Security Council of the African Union said on X that it had reviewed elections for the past six months and “congratulated Burundi, Comoros and Gabon on holding credible elections”.
Burundi’s ruling party of President Evariste Ndayishimiye won every seat in parliament in last month’s vote, with 96 percent of the vote.
Rights groups, the Catholic Church and the opposition all said there were serious irregularities, pointing out that key opponents of the ruling party had effectively been barred from running.
“It is distressing to see the African Union give (Burundi’s election commission) a free pass… when the Catholic Church, which had the most electoral observers, identified numerous irregularities,” said the official.
The senior official with the opposition Uprona party spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisals.
“We ourselves noted serious irregularities, sometimes very blatant, such as ballot boxes stuffed even before the polling stations opened, and on an unprecedented scale,” he added.
“The AU is losing what little credibility it had in terms of election observation, which is not surprising because it is, as some say, a union of heads of state who protect each other,” said the official.
Human Rights Watch said the ruling party had “intimidated, harassed and threatened” voters and described the election as “devoid of genuine political competition”.
The Catholic Church, the dominant denomination in the country, said in a statement it had observed “suspicious ballot stuffing” and officials forcing voters “to cast their vote in a particular way”.
Burundi ranks as the world’s poorest country in GDP per capita, according to the World Bank’s 2023 index.
Three-quarters of its 12 million people live below the poverty line.
