BURUNDI: Senate adopts electoral code

BUJUMBURA, 13 Apr 2005 (IRIN) - Burundi's Senate, the parliament's upper chamber, voted 46-0 on Tuesday to adopt the country's electoral code. Three senators abstained.

However, the senators proposed 60 amendments to the code that could see a delay of the electoral process, due to end on 22 April with presidential elections.

The chamber took one month to adopt the bill, to which they added 20 new articles.

The Senate was due to debate on Wednesday the adoption of a second bill linked to the electoral process, one on communal law. The National Assembly, the parliament's lower chamber, forwarded the draft bills on the electoral code and the communal law to the Senate on 15 March for adoption.

During the adoption of the electoral code on Tuesday the senators debated Article 6 of the code, with some suggesting that it be amended to ban people who benefited from the provisional immunity to vote or contest for positions during the elections.

Presenting the proposed amendment during a plenary session, the chairman of the commission of senators mandated to analyse the electoral code, Jean Baptiste Manwangari, said, "Allowing them to vote will be perpetuating impunity of crimes".

In the absence of a consensus, the article remained unchanged.

The senators also failed to reach a consensus on the representation of women in local territorial administration. The post-transition constitution grants women 30 percent representation in the country's institutions such as parliament and government; but it is silent on the women's quota in other decision-making bodies.

Following Senate's adoption of the electoral code, it will be returned to the National Assembly for a second reading.

Regulations governing the Senate and National Assembly stipulate that a joint commission of Members of Parliament and senators would be set up to review the proposed amendments before the head of state promulgates the two bills.

However, this stage could delay the country's electoral process, which had to be extended from October 2004 to April to facilitate the holding of a constitutional referendum, the promulgation of the two bills and preparation of the general elections.

On Wednesday, after a meeting with the Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr Jean Minani, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General to Burundi, Carolyn McAskie, expressed concern over the amendments proposed by the Senate and the National Assembly to the electoral code.

"I fear they could delay the whole electoral process," she said.

She added that the transitional government of Burundi government would have to negotiate another extension of the transition period, which, she said, should be "as short as possible" to allow the organisation of the elections.

The transitional government was set up following a Peace and Reconciliation Accord signed by Burundian parties in August 2000 in Arusha, Tanzania.

[ENDS]