The people of Burundi appear to have overwhelmingly approved a new constitution, preliminary results showed yesterday, voting in massive numbers to pass a referendum designed to guarantee majority rule and minority rights in this central African country ravaged by 11 years of civil war.
Paul Ngarambe, the head of the electoral commission, said early numbers showed 89 percent of registered voters turned out and 91 percent of them approved the new constitution, which reserves 60 percent of seats in government and parliament for Hutus and 40 percent for Tutsis.
More than 67 percent of polling stations had reported final results by yesterday morning and final results were expected by the end of the day, Ngarambe said.
The Tutsi minority had dominated politics since independence from Belgium in 1962. Rebels forming the Hutu majority have fought the Tutsi-led army since 1993, demanding a democratic government.
The last holdout Hutu rebel group pledged not to disrupt the referendum, saying it hopes the new constitution will clear the way for the election of a new government with which it could negotiate a political settlement. The group is active in only one of Burundi's 17 provinces.
"In all of these places the elections went well and counting as well, and the results we have clearly show that there will be no measurable, if not minor, changes in the final result," Ngarambe said.
A simple majority is needed for Burundi's referendum to pass.
Polls opened Monday at 6am and closed at 6pm. Authorities had extended voting for two hours to help voters in places where polls opened late and those prevented from casting ballots because their names were missing from voter rolls.
The actual ethnic breakdown in Burundi is unclear because an accurate census has not been conducted in more than 70 years. Nevertheless, the main Tutsi parties had urged a no vote, saying the constitution was imposed by outsiders -- mediators of the 2000 peace deal that was signed in Arusha, Tanzania. They also branded it pro-Hutu.
Unidentified assailants threw three grenades at a polling station two hours before polls opened in southern Burundi. No one was injured, though electoral workers were there, Ngarambe said.
Two Tutsis were later arrested as they tried to distribute some 584 unmarked ballot papers to voters, electoral officials said.
Civil war broke out in Burundi in October 1993 after Tutsi paratroopers assassinated the country's first democratically elected leader, a Hutu. More than 260,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the conflict.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of