Woman elected speaker of lower house

Burundi's parliament voted on Tuesday to elect Immaculee Nahayo, of the Conseil national pour la défense de la démocratie-Forces pour la défense de la démocratie (CNDD-FDD) party, as the speaker of the National Assembly, lower chamber of parliament. Nahayo, elected by 107 votes to three, with six abstentions, becomes the first woman in the country’s history to hold the position. She replaces Jean Minani, who chaired the Assembly in the preceding parliament. Following her election, Nahayo urged legislators to return to their respective constituencies to be as close as possible to the people who elected them. "I only want to see you during the National Assembly sessions," she said, adding that she wanted to break with the tradition of their predecessors, who were accused of rarely visiting their electorates. During the same session, Burundi's communication minister, CNDD-FDD's Onesime Nduwimana, and justice minister Didace Kiganahe, of Burundi’s' main Hutu party, Front Démocratique du Burundi, were elected first and second vice presidents of the National Assembly respectively. Senators also met on Tuesday to elect the speaker of the Senate, upper chamber, but a new amendment brought to the Senate internal regulations that forced the house to postpone the election till Wednesday, as the rules had to be sent to the constitutional court for endorsement. Parliamentarians and senators will on Friday elect the only presidential candidate, CNDD-FDD's Pierre Nkurunziza, as the central African country's first post-transition president.