State of the Nation Reporter

CNDD-FDD candidate Evariste Ndayishimiye has won Burundi’s presidential election by a landslide victory amid accusations of rigging by the leading opposition challenger.

Burundi’s independent election commission (CENI) announced that Ndayishimiye won by 68.72% of the vote ahead of Agathon Rwasa of the opposition CNL party who secured 24.19%.There was a turnout of 88 percent.

Current First Vice President Gaston Sindimwo of the nationalist party Uprona finished far behind with just 2%.

CNL has contested the election results with the Party spokesperson Terence Manirambona saying his party had its own numbers to prove that Rwasa won.

“We are going to go through the appropriate channels to demand that the vote be recounted. We have a lot of facts that undeniably demonstrate that the results announced by CENI do not reflect the will of the people,” he said.

He said the party was “stunned” to hear what he says are false numbers and accuses the election commission of colluding with the ruling party to keep opposition election observers away from the polls.

The ruling party also secured 72 seats in the parliament while CNL took 27 seats and the Uprona party won one seat.

Final results are expected Tuesday and all parties have 10 days to challenge the outcome before the constitutional court.