Evariste Ndayishimiye, a retired army general and ruling party presidential candidate was on Monday declared winner of Burundi’s presidential election with 68.72 percent of the vote, the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) said.
The election commission, which released the official results live on Burundian media, said that his main opposition rival Agathon Rwasa of the National Freedom Council (CNL), had garnered 24.19 percent of the vote.
The CNL had kicked and described the result as fraudulent even before the announcement.
“The voting was marred with several irregularities: arrests of over 200 CNL (observers), intimidation, people who voted several times or under the names of dead ones, refugees or prisoners,” said Terence Manirambona, the spokesman for the CNL.
The commission said that 87.7 percent of registered voters had turned out to cast their ballots in Wednesday’s election, which also included the election of members of parliament and local officials.
Rwasa and his party have already contested the outcome of the election, saying early results were a “fantasy”, and accused authorities of arresting their agents, and preventing them from observing the vote and taking part in counting.
The election took place without any international election observers, and with scant regard to the coronavirus outbreak which is being largely ignored by the government.
Burundi has been increasingly isolated since the 2015 election of President Pierre Nkurunziza to a disputed third term in office.
Violence which erupted during that poll left at least 1,200 dead and saw 400,000 flee the country.
The electoral commission said the allegations of fraud had to be addressed by the courts and not by them. The government did not respond to requests for comment about the accusations.