Bomani talks of likely power sharing

A senior official of the Burundi peace talks facilitation team, Mark Bomani, on Thursday spoke of a possible sharing of power between the three proposed Burundian presidential aspirants, including the current President Pierre Buyoya. The other candidates are army Colonel Epitace Bayanakandi and Domitien Ndayizeye of FRODEBU. The Tanzanian ‘Guardian’ newspaper said Bomani called on all signatories to the peace deal to accept sharing of the country’s leadership. He was speaking at the end of the two-day closed session of the newly-installed Implementation Monitoring Committee (IMC) set up to oversee the accord. “I think some form of balancing of the top leadership will be inevitable during the transition,” he said.

“Each strand should perhaps agree on who would like to represent it at the top and the three would then be called upon to work together...Given the will, I do not see why this should be avoided in the power dispensation during the transition.” Bomani called on Burundians to ensure that the signed peace agreement would be implemented without any obstruction and allow the IMC to demonstrate its effectiveness regardless of having its temporary bureau in Arusha and not in Burundi. Initially, there were six presidential aspirants. The three whose names are out of the race are Ambassador Albert Mbonerane from CNDD, former president Jean-Baptiste Bagaza of PARENA and Terence Nsanze of the ABASA party.