Polls body to revise voter lists

Burundi's National Independent Electoral Commission, or CENI, will revise voters' lists between 8 and 17 April, ahead of general elections due before the end of April, an official of the commission said on Wednesday.

The CENI commissioner in charge of electoral operations, Liberate Kiburago, said the process "notably consists of distributing voters cards to those who did not get them during the referendum on the post-transition constitution".

During the revision period, CENI would also register eligible voters who failed to do so before the 28 February referendum on the constitution.

Moreover, CENI would transfer names of voters to polling stations of their choice. During the referendum some people voted in stations they were not native to due to various reasons such as travel, work stations and residence out of their native homes.

Kiburago said all voters must have cards as CENI would not accept receipts that some voters used during the referendum.

Regarding a voters' census, Kiburago said elections were normally based on the total population, and that CENI was not entitled to carry out such a census.

"We will use figures on the population provided by the Ministry of Interior," she said.

She said CENI would publish an electoral calendar when the Senate, the parliament's upper chamber, completed its analysis of the electoral code and the communal law and when the head of state promulgated them. These have already been approved by the National Assembly, parliament's lower chamber.