Bujumbura, Burundi--Burundi's main opposition parties said Wednesday it was now "impossible" to hold free and fair elections next week and that the result should not be recognised if they take place.
The opposition said the plans for polls to go ahead despite widespread civil unrest in the capital was tantamount to an "electoral hold-up" by President Pierre Nkurunziza, whose controversial bid for a third consecutive term has plunged the central African nation into a deep political crisis.
The statement came as another demonstrator was killed and two wounded in clashes in the south of the country, according to local officials, while activists complained of increasing attacks by ruling party supporters.
"The country has sunk into a political and security mess which in no way can allow for peaceful, transparent, free or credible elections," Burundi's main opposition parties said in a joint statement.
"Having an election campaign or holding a vote is impossible. We cannot have an electoral hold-up," the statement said, accusing Nkurunziza and the ruling CNDD-FDD party of silencing independent media, detaining opponents and provoking a major refugee crisis.
The chair of the 15-member UN Security Council said Wednesday that the "predominant opinion" among the top UN body was that the elections should be postponed but it was divided over how to address the crisis.
"The predominant opinion was that elections were not possible to carry out in the present circumstances," Lithuanian Ambassador and current council chairman Raimonda Murmokaite told reporters.
Russia disagreed arguing that the elections were an internal matter and that the bloc should support efforts to help Burundians resolve the dispute themselves.
Parliamentary elections are due to be held on June 5, with a presidential poll scheduled for June 26. On Tuesday, the government appealed for public donations from "patriotic citizens" so that it could organise the elections, which have been hit by a funding freeze by the central African nation's former colonial power Belgium as well as the European Union.
The crisis surrounds a bid by Nkurunziza to stand for a third consecutive term in office, with opposition and rights groups saying the move violates the constitution as well as the terms of a peace deal that ended a 13-year civil war in 2006.
Street protests have taken place for the past month, leaving at least 30 dead after a violent crackdown by security forces.
The crisis intensified earlier this month when a top general staged a failed coup attempt.
The opposition parties said the crisis risked plunging the small, landlocked and impoverished country back into civil war.
"Endorsing such a process is equivalent to supporting a predictable civil war in Burundi," the statement said, adding that foreign governments should "never recognise the election results".
AFP
