Senatorial elections in Burundi : the CNDD-FDD wins all seats, the opposition swept aside

SOS Médias Burundi

Bujumbura, July 27, 2025 – Burundi’s Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) announced the provisional results of the July 23 senatorial elections on Friday. According to its president, Prosper Ntahorwamiye, the ruling CNDD-FDD party won all the seats, confirming its political hegemony after having already dominated the legislative elections.

A single-member upper house

The 2025 senatorial elections involved ten elected representatives, two per province in five provinces, with the requirement to elect one Hutu and one Tutsi in each constituency. Three additional seats were filled by co-optation to ensure representation of the Batwa community.

The new upper house will therefore have 13 members, all from the CNDD-FDD, for a five-year term. This landslide victory ousts the other political parties that participated in the race, including the UPRONA, the CNL, and the APDR.

Questions about pluralism

While the CENI asserts that the election was conducted transparently and in accordance with electoral laws, several observers question the state of political pluralism and democracy in the small east African nation, where the CNDD-FDD continues to exercise unchallenged dominance.