Burundi president named ruling party candidate for 2027 election

ADDIS ABABA - Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye has been named his ruling CNDD-FDD party's candidate for a presidential election to be held next year, the party said on Sunday.

Ndayishimiye, 57, has been head of state of the poor East African country since 2020, taking over following the death of longtime leader Pierre Nkurunziza.

The CNFDD-FDD said in a post on X that Ndayishimiye was its choice to run for a seven-year mandate in the poll. No firm date for the election has been given.

Ndayishimiye reacted on X by thanking the party's members "for putting their trust in me".

"As you have already seen, with what we have done up to now, I pledge to continue the work we are doing, with all of you, so that all Burundi profits in peace," he said.

Ndayishimiye, a general and former ruling party head who held various roles under Nkurunziza, is the favourite going into the election.

He was first elected president in May 2020, in polls marked by accusations of fraud and the disqualification of his main opponent.

Since taking power, Ndayishimiye has vacillated between opening up the government to lessen the influence of powerful generals and maintaining a firm grip on the country.

The United Nations and NGOs have condemned rights violations in the landlocked country of 15 million people, which ranks among the world's poorest.

Burundi's media and communications minister was killed this month in what the government was a car accident. Sources said the cause of death was unclear and would be investigated.

Last month, Burundi's ex-prime minister General Alain-Guillaume Bunyoni, who had been serving a life sentence for an attempted coup, was released on medical grounds.

Once one of the most powerful government figures, Bunyoni was prime minister from mid-2020 until September 2022, when he was fired, days after Ndayishimiye had warned of an alleged coup plot against him.

Burundi was shaken by political crisis in 2015, after the announcement of Nkurunziza's candidacy for a third mandate.

Protests were brutally repressed with summary executions, disappearances, arbitrary detentions, torture and sexual violence. The crisis left at 1,200 people killed and pushed 40,000 Burundians into exile, according to the International Criminal Court.

Ndayishimiye currently holds the presidency of the African Union, which runs for a year from February.