BUJUMBURA July 30th (ABP) – The chairman of the Constitutional Court of Burundi, Mr. Charles Ndagijimana, proceeded Tuesday July 28, 2020 in Bujumbura, to the official proclamation of the final results of the senatorial election which took place on the 20 July 2020 in all provinces of the country, a check on the site by the ABP has revealed.
Before the proclamation of those final results, Mr. Ndagijimana informed that the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) seized the Constitutional Court on July 24, 2020, in accordance with article 76 of organic law N ° 1/11 of May 20, 2019 amending Law N ° 1/20 of June 3, 2014 on the electoral code, to ask that Court to verify the regularity of that senatorial and the proclamation of the final results.
After checking the documents relating to the senatorial election sent to the Constitutional Court by the CENI, Mr. Ndagijimana declared that he had not noted any regularity regarding the conduct, the counting of the votes and the establishment of the results of that election.
Nevertheless, pointed out Mr. Ndagijimana, the Court noted material errors in the list of names of elected and co-opted senators as well as in the calculation of the percentages. In accordance with article 79 of the electoral code, Mr. Ndagijimana indicated that the Constitutional Court proceeded to rectify those purely material errors.
Article 142 of the electoral code provides that the Senate is made up of two delegates per province elected by an electoral college made up of members of the communal councils of the province in question and three members of the Twa ethnic group co-opted by the CENI and coming from the different regions.
Thus, added the Chairman of the Constitutional Court, 36 senators were elected throughout the country including 50% of the Tutsi ethnic group and 50% of the Hutu ethnic group as well as 3 senators of the Twa ethnic group including a woman, who were co-opted after the election.
The Constitutional Court validated the overall results of the senatorial election. Thus, recalled the Chairman of the Constitutional Court, the total number of the electoral college is 3495 across the whole country, while the total number of voters is 3459.
The number of votes cast in favor of the CNDD-FDD party lists is 2,485, or 71.84% of voters. That of the votes of the CNL is 802, or 23.19% of voters, while that of the votes of the UPRONA is 107, or 3.09% of voters.
The number of votes for the Sangwe-PADER party is 2, i.e. 0.06% of voters, while that of the APDR party is also 0, i.e. 0% of voters, as is the independent Antoine Kantiza, i.e. 0% of voters.
Moreover, he continued, those senators were elected on the basis of the lists presented by the political parties which took part in that election and those lists are made up of titular senators and substitute senators, hence the Constitutional Court decided that the referral is both regular and competent, while affirming that the senatorial election of the 20th instant took place in a regular manner.
“These senators are elected or co-opted for a five-year term starting from August 13, 2020”, said the Chairman of the Constitutional Court, before indicating that these final results will be published in the official bulletin of Burundi.