{"id":16147,"date":"2020-05-20T17:53:28","date_gmt":"2020-05-20T17:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/?p=16147"},"modified":"2020-05-20T17:56:47","modified_gmt":"2020-05-20T17:56:47","slug":"elections-marred-by-irregularities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/elections-marred-by-irregularities\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cElections marred by irregularities\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At least 17 CNL party members have been arrested by the police in Rumonge Province around 11:30 a.m.<br \/>\nNine were arrested in Gatobo locality in Burambi Commune, four downtown Rumonge including a CNL leader in that locality while others were arrested in Mutambara locality.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_15906\" style=\"width: 332px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15906\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-15906\" src=\"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Pierre-Nkurikiye-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"322\" height=\"185\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Pierre-Nkurikiye-1.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Pierre-Nkurikiye-1-300x173.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Pierre-Nkurikiye-1-768x442.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Pierre-Nkurikiye-1-600x345.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 322px) 100vw, 322px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-15906\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pierre Nkurikiye, spokesman for the Ministry of Public Security<\/p><\/div>\n<p>According to Ob\u00e8de Ntakiyiruta, the CNL party leader in Rumonge Province, they have been arrested because they were denouncing some irregularities.<br \/>\nHe also says 40% of CNL party observers were kicked out of the voting stations.<\/p>\n<p>Among other irregularities observed on the ground include proxy theft and lack of voting booth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome voters have voted in the presence of someone,\u201d says Ntakiyiruta.<\/p>\n<p>In Cibitoke western Province, voting cards were distributed to children under 18.<\/p>\n<p>At Lyc\u00e9e COMIBU in Cibitoke Province, it\u2019s the youths affiliated to the ruling CNDD-FDD party that distributed those cards. They were arrested but were later on released.<\/p>\n<p>Police pursue the journalist of Radio Isanganiro<br \/>\nAt a press conference held on 20 May at around 4 p.m., the spokesman for the Ministry of Public Security has said the security situation was generally good throughout the country and<br \/>\nthat Burundian citizens participated massively in the elections.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The elections went smoothly, without disruption,&#8221; said Pierre Nkurikiye, He also said some irregularities were reported.<\/p>\n<p>He cited namely two representatives of the opposition party National Congress for Liberty (CNL) who arrived late at the polling station in Gatumba area in Mutimbuzi Commune of Bujumbura Province.<br \/>\nAccording to Mr Nkurikiye, they arrived at 8 a.m. while voting started at 6 a.m.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When they arrived, they disrupted activities by requiring voters who had finished voting to resume voting,&#8221; said the police spokesperson.<br \/>\nHe specifies that the two CNL members were later on arrested.<\/p>\n<p>He also reports people in two cars who tried to disrupt elections in Muyira area in Kanyosha Commune of Bujumbura Province.<br \/>\n&#8220;A car was intercepted while another car which was driven by Evariste Nzikobanyanka, a journalist of Radio Isanganiro escaped,&#8221; said Nkurikiye adding that the police discovered a<br \/>\nrifle in this intercepted car.<br \/>\n&#8220;The police continue to search for this reporter and the car he was driving,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>The Public Security Ministry spokesman also said at least 10 CNL party members were<br \/>\narrested in Rutana, Rumonge, Muyinga, Muramvya and Muyinga provinces.<\/p>\n<p>They are generally accused of wanting to rig the elections by using forged accreditations for<br \/>\npolitical proxies and influencing voters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At least 17 CNL party members have been arrested by the police in Rumonge Province around 11:30 a.m. Nine were arrested in Gatobo locality in Burambi Commune, four downtown Rumonge including a CNL leader in that locality while others were arrested in Mutambara locality. According to Ob\u00e8de Ntakiyiruta, the CNL party leader in Rumonge Province, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":15906,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[1177],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16147"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16147"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16149,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16147\/revisions\/16149"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}