Political parties reject electoral calendar

A group of 20 Burundian political parties said on Thursday they would not accept the revised electoral calendar issued recently by the Independent Electoral Commission. "The change of the electoral calendar by the commission is unconstitutional," Terence Nsanze, the leader of the Alliance Burundo Africain pour le Salut, said on behalf of the parties on at a news conference in Bujumbura, the capital. Under the original arrangement, the first election was supposed to have been local "hill" polls; followed by communal, legislative and presidential elections. The hill elections have now been postponed until 4 September, Commission Chairman Paul Ngarambe said because "they are very complicated". He added that the commission was entitled to change the order of the elections if it deemed it necessary. Legislative elections are scheduled for 4 July, according to a decree issued on Wednesday by President Domitien Ndayizeye. The deadline for candidates to register for the communal elections is 4 May while candidates filing for legislative elections must do so before 12 May. Nsanze said the deadlines were too short. The parties are calling for them to be extended. They also said the commission's decision to put party symbols on a single electoral card was "a way of misleading the voters". "It is a complicated system that only educated people can understand," he added. Tension rose at Nsanze's news conference when Ngarambe arrived and said, "The electoral calendar will never change." The crowd became agitated forcing Ngarambe to flee the conference.