Regional negotiators reject efforts to amend constitution

Political leaders in Burundi seeking to amend the draft constitution before it goes to a referendum in February were dealt a blow this week when the main international mediators to the country's peace process said they opposed any changes. "If there are clauses they do not want in that constitution, the people have the right to give the answer 'no' in the referendum," Jacob Zuma, the South African deputy president, said on Wednesday at a news conference in Bujumbura, the Burundi capital. Zuma is the chief mediator in the Burundi peace process. He said he also spoke for Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who chairs a regional peace initiative for Burundi, along with other regional leaders. Zuma said the current interim government should not change the constitution. Additionally, the constitution is based on the points of the Arusha peace agreement and was signed by the government and most rebel leaders in 2000. The interim government is not an elected body. The issue of amendments has divided Burundi's politicians, even from within their own parties. President Domitien Ndayizeye is in favour of the amendments, while the head of his party and Speaker of the parliament, Jean Minani, opposes any changes at this time. One of the proposed amendments would unblock former and current presidents from contesting the presidential elections. Another would allow the president to be elected directly. The current draft constitution states that in the first post-transition election, the president should be chosen by parliamentarians. The Burundi government has not yet reacted officially. Earlier in the week, Zuma said he spoke in private to political leaders, as well as diplomats, officials from the independent electoral commission, the constitutional court and the army. Regional leaders had earlier accepted a proposal of the Independent Electoral Commission to allow a delay of up to six months for the referendum and the transition period, in order to overcome the technical problems of holding the polls. However, Zuma said if the delay was extended to change the substance of the constitution it would "open [the] floodgates with parties wanting many things to be changed and the whole process will collapse".