BUJUMBURA, June 12 (Xinhua) -- The Burundian ruling party has won all seats of the future National Assembly, the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) has said, citing provisional results of last week's legislative elections.
"The National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD) is the only political party that will seat at the National Assembly, as no other political party or coalition of political parties was able to garner at least 2 percent of votes to be able to claim a seat as provided by the National Constitution and the Electoral Code," CENI Chairman Prosper Ntahorwamiye told a briefing Wednesday on the June 5 elections.
He said the CNDD-FDD won 96.51 percent of the votes cast, while the Union for National Progress (UPRONA) came a distant second with 1.38 percent.
Ntahorwamiye said 98.88 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots at the legislative elections.
The future National Assembly will be composed of 111 deputies -- 100 elected members, eight co-opted members from the CNDD-FDD, and three co-opted members from the Batwa minority group, he said.
The National Assembly was supposed to have 100 seats, and according to the election results, 57 Hutus and 43 Tutsis had been elected.
"However, in order to uphold the ethnic balance stipulated in the National Constitution and the Electoral Code, which require at least 60 percent Hutus and 40 percent Tutsis, eight candidates from the Hutu ethnic group were co-opted," Ntahorwamiye said, adding that the gender quota of at least 30 percent women was also respected.
He said the list of the elected deputies will be sent to the Constitutional Court for endorsement.
On Tuesday, the Provincial Independent Electoral Commissions announced the results of the election of district councilors.
The CNDD-FDD won most seats in district councils: only 20 of 1,050 seats nationwide went to other parties, including 16 to the UPRONA and four to the National Congress for Liberty.
Two seats were also co-opted for the Batwa minority ethnic group.
On June 5, nearly 6 million Burundian citizens living in Burundi and abroad went to the polls in the combined legislative and district elections.
Burundi is scheduled to hold senatorial elections on July 23 and village-level elections on Aug. 25. The next presidential election is slated for 2027. ■
