Burundi unrest endangers EU election mission

Negotiations between the EU and the Burundian government on the continuation of the EU mission are ongoing.

European Parliament election observers that were to travel to Burundi to oversee local and parliamentary elections will now stay home in the wake of a decision to delay the elections for ten days. The MEPs were to be an addition to the EU’s election observation mission (EU EOM Burundi 2015) that arrived in part in the country last month to observe both the parliamentary and presidential elections this year.

The mission is still in the country — but the entire enterprise is now up in the air as negotiations between the EU and the Burundian government on the continuation of the EU presence are ongoing in light of continuing unrest in the eastern African nation.

“A decision on the EU presence will be made in light of those outcomes,” says Jose Antonio De Gabriel, Deputy Head of EU EOM Burundi 2015. It is unclear when there will be a result, but right now “some of the conditions for fair elections are not met,” says De Gabriel.

Earlier this week, President Pierre Nkurunziza, announced to postpone the May 26 elections to June 5. Burundi’s election commission recommended the suspension following international concerns about the country’s political instability and rising protests in the capital city of Bujumbura.

Nkurunziza aims to maintain power by getting a third mandate in office, which constitutional law currently prohibits. This, together with a failed coup d’état earlier this month, made the political situation in the country insecure and led to over 100,000 people fleeing to neighboring Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.

David Martin, a British social-democrat MEP and the mission’s Chief Observer, expressed his concern about the violence in the country. If the demonstrations do not stop “it would make it extremely difficult to meet the necessary conditions for a credible and transparent election process,” Martin says.

Judith Sargentini, a Dutch Green MEP, was supposed to leave for Burundi on Saturday as a member of the mission, but had to cancel her trip. MEPs will continue to follow the elections closely but it is uncertain if they will be able to do so from within the country, Sargentini says.

The observers were — among other tasks — to monitor whether media broadcasting is balanced and they would have observed at polling stations on election day.

Sargentini: “We try to get a good picture, but it is of course only a small percentage of the polling stations that we can visit. It’s never a complete picture, but more than an educated guess.”

In light of the political turmoil, some European countries suspended their humanitarian aid to Burundi. Belgium — after the World Bank and the European Union the third largest donor in humanitarian aid to Burundi — said in a statement from the ministry of foreign affairs that it will reconsider its spending if Nkurunziza gets a third term in office.

Neven Mimica, European commissioner for international cooperation and development, said in the European Parliament plenary session that “it is not too late to take the path of dialogue” and that “successful elections should be the EU’s first goal.”

EU EOM Burundi 2015, which includes staff members from the European Commission, European Parliament and independent member states, was deployed on request of the government of Burundi. It is the third election observation mission in the country since 2005.

The parliamentary elections in Burundi are the first in a series of votes this year. The people will elect their president on 26 June, the senate in July and election bodies in August.