- Evariste has won last week’s presidential election
- Set to take over from outgoing President Pierre Nkurunziza
- Mental Health and Psychosocial considerations during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Evariste Ndayishimiye, a retired general, has been declared the winner in Burundi’s presidential election held last week.
Evariste garnered 68.7 percent of the votes in last week’s ballot while Agathon Rwasa, the main opposition leader, received 24.19 percent.
Evariste was picked by the governing CNDD-FDD party to succeed outgoing President Pierre Nkurunziza, whose controversial decision to seek a third term in the last election in 2015 sparked mass unrest, violence and an opposition boycott.
The vote held last week is meant to usher in the first democratic transfer of power in 58 years of independence.
There were few international election monitors on Wednesday after the government said they would have to spend 14 days in quarantine to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
With 87.7 percent of registered voters turning out to cast their ballots, commission chairman Pierre Claver Kazihise described the turnout as “massive” and said the polling, which also included the election of members of parliament and local officials, was peaceful.
Ndayishimiye is expected to be sworn in for a seven-year term in late August, when Nkurunziza’s term ends.
It is unclear whether Ndayishimiye would be able to rule free from interference by Nkurunziza, who in February was elevated by Parliament to the rank of “supreme guide for patriotism” and will remain chairman of the party’s highly influential council of elders.
