President calls for a referendum on the constitution

With Burundian politicians unable to agree on the country’s new constitution, President Domitien Ndayizeye signed a decree on Wednesday calling for a referendum. The decree calls for the National Electoral Commission to organise the constitutional referendum by 20 October, 10 days before scheduled national elections after which the current transitional government is supposed to hand over power. But disagreements continue to abound. On Wednesday, Ndayizeye had summoned an extraordinary plenary session of the Congress - which consists of the both of the country’s legislative chambers, the National Assembly and the Senate - to discuss the draft constitution. Members of Parliament (MPs) and senators from six Tutsi-dominated parties, which were not signatories to a power-sharing agreement reached in Pretoria in August, boycotted the extraordinary session. The power-sharing agreement is the basis for the draft constitution. Ministers from Tutsi-dominated parties had earlier boycotted a Council of Ministers meeting on the implementation of the constitution. Senate Speaker Libère Bararunyeretse challenged Ndayizeye’s competency to have convened the extraordinary session. "It is being held in violation of the [current transitional] constitution," Bararunyeretse said on Wednesday at a news conference. He added that only the speakers of the two chambers of the Congress could summon such a session. He said the constitution should follow normal legislative procedures of being discussed first by the National Assembly and then by the Senate. But Justice Minister Didace Kiganahe, who presented the draft constitution at the extraordinary session on Thursday, told MPs and senators that articles 137 and 145 of the transition constitution gave the president the power to summon such a session as well as the right to set its agenda. Not all MPs and senators from the Tutsi-dominated parties boycotted the session. An MP from the Union pour le progres national, Adrien Sibomana, told reporters, "I have a national mandate and nobody has the right to stop me from attending." But despite efforts to meet the 1 November deadline for ending the transition, other political conflicts are breaking out. On Monday, the 21 member of the revenue court were sworn in before the head of state, but the main faction of the former rebel group of Pierre Nkurunziza, the Conseil national de défense de la démocratie-Forces pour la défense de la démocratie (CNDD–FDD) is refusing to recognise the institution. "The members of the court were designated by the [main political] parties to cover their economic crimes," Pasteur Mpawenayo, who speaks for the CNDD–FDD in the National Assembly, said.