Burundi opposition rejects referendum result

NAIROBI: The coalition led by main opposition leader Agathon Rwasa said on Saturday it did not recognise the result of a referendum on constitutional reforms that could leave President Pierre Nkurunziza in power until 2034.

With provisional returns from all but one of the country’s 18 provinces showing support for reforms that could see Nkurunziza, already serving a controversial third term, start two seven-year terms in 2020, former rebel Rwasa slammed the exercise as a charade.

"The electoral process has been neither free nor transparent, nor independent and still less democratic," Rwasa said in a statement issued by his Amizero y’Aburundi coalition.