Tuesday 28 April 2015

Demonstrations against the President's third term in Burundi

 I don't usually write directly about politics, which isn't my area.  But the current political situation in Burundi, and what follows it, will have a major effect on the economy and people's lives in general.

The background is that the Burundian constitution says a president can only have two terms in office.  President Pierre Nkurunziza wants a third term, which he says is constitutional because he was not directly elected by the population in his first term, but instead chosen by legislators.  Many people, including senior members of his own political party (here and here), disagree.   There have been demonstrations throughout Burundi.

My opinion is that a president who overruns the limits of their terms is liable to damage the country and their own reputation.  Many former leaders who have stood down have gone on to distinguished roles within African diplomacy (Buyoya, Kabbah, Mandela, Nyerere, and Rawlings are famous ones, I think).

Burundian police officers occupy the offices of Radio Publique Africaine (picture from www.rpa.bi; used without explicit permission in advance, given the rapidly changing events in Burundi).

I also think that the institutions run by the state, including the army and police, should serve the state and not any individuals in it.  They should act if there are illegal riots or a violent attempt to overthrow a government against the general will of the people.  But these conditions do not seem to apply in Burundi today.  It is reasonable and admirable that they could refuse orders - from either side - when these conditions are not met.  The order to occupy the private Radio Publique Africaine by police, pictured above, could have been ignored by senior officers, as government officials do not have the power to issue the order.

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