Vugizo – Makamba : meetings of certain political parties banned

The administrator of the Vugizo district in Makamba province (southern Burundi) is accused of political intolerance and of being harmful to democracy. This follows untimely bans on meetings of opposition political parties. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

According to leaders of the CDP party (Council of Patriots), the administrator of the Vugizo district, Diomède Dusengimana, banned the meeting of their party which was scheduled for Saturday, September 28.

According to the same source, this district authority had asked the district leader of this party to present him with all the names of members of the village committees as a condition for holding the meeting.

The CDP leader presented the lists but the administrator, Diomède Dusengimana, found “a new pretext”, according to party officials.

“I want to be presented with contact details of all members of these committees, which was not possible because not all of them have a telephone”, he justified.

Meeting banned at the last minute

CDP officials analyze this practice of the administrator of the Vugizo district as “a scheme aimed at intimidating activists of this party that says he has integrated several new activists including those who are leaving the ruling party, the CNDD-FDD”.

The governing bodies at the national level contacted Diomède Dusengimana, administrator of Vugizo.

He replied to them: “Replace Mr. Noël, the district leader of your party. Otherwise there will never be a meeting.”

They explain that this is not the first time that this administration authority has banned CDP party meetings, but that it has been doing so for some time.

Leaders of this party accuse this administrator of political intolerance and consider him harmful to democracy.

The UPRONA party (Union for National Progress) claims that it was also prevented from holding a meeting a few months ago in this same district. However, it is considered to be close to the CNDD-FDD.