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A spokesman of President Domitien Ndayizeye said on Monday that the South African team in charge of Burundi's peace process had rejected a government proposal to extend the transitional period by one year.
The spokesman, Pancrace Cimpaye, told IRIN in the Burundian capital, Bujumbura, that the mediation team had maintained that the transitional period should end on 1 November as stipulated in the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Accord, signed in August 2000, under which the three-year transitional period in Burundi was established.
Cimpaye made the remarks following a meeting on Saturday in South Africa between the mediation team and Ndayizeye as well as other senior Burundian government officials.
He said that the mediation team had proposed that a team of international experts be sent to Burundi to draft post-transitional texts that the Burundian National Assembly would vote by acclamation.
However, he said this proposal was unacceptable "as some will feel excluded".
Ndayizeye; the leader of UPRONA political party, Jean Baptiste Manwangari; the leader of the FRODEBU party, Jean Minani; and the leader of the main former rebel movement in the country, Pierre Nkurunziza, attended Saturday's meeting in South Africa where they discussed Burundi's electoral process.
The meeting was held after the Burundi government decided on Friday to propose the extension of the transition period up to 29 October 2005.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
