Bujumbura : low turnout and irregularities during village elections

SOS Médias Burundi

Bujumbura, August 25, 2025 – The elections for village and neighborhood leaders in Bujumbura province (western Burundi) were marked on Monday, August 25, by a low turnout and numerous irregularities. Delays in opening polling stations, the absence of official candidate lists provided by the CENI (Independent National Electoral Commission), and serious incidents sparked voter distrust and outrage among observers.

In several polling centers, SOS Médias Burundi reporters noted delays in opening polling stations. According to polling station officials, this delay was due to the absence of official candidate lists provided by the CENI.

Disoriented voters and additional obstacles

Many voters were unaware of the candidates’ names due to the lack of posters or lists available on site. Even political party representatives were not authorized to indicate the names of those to be elected. Some citizens were denied access to the polls for lack of a national identity card or a proxy issued by the village chiefs.

A contested night campaign

The day before the election, several candidates, escorted by Imbonerakure, members of the youth league of the CNDD-FDD, the ruling party, crisscrossed the villages to canvass residents’ homes, presenting the names of candidates to support in exchange for promises of money.

Serious incidents

At the Lycée des Amis, on Dogodogo village, Rugombo zone, Cibitoke district, a soldier assigned to polling station security shot three teenage girls who were running nearby. One of them, Francine N., 16 years old, an 8th-grade pupil, was arrested. She says, “We were told that after voting, we would be given money,” she confides, still trembling. The judicial police intervened to question her.

In Muyange (Rugajo zone, Mugina district), the police arrested a person in possession of 18 voter cards, while another young girl held an undocumented card. These incidents come on top of numerous reports of widespread fraud, including the distribution of voter cards to unregistered voters and forced proxy voting.

Low turnout and a suspicious population

By midday, several centers remained virtually deserted. Residents explain their abstention by a deep sense of uselessness : “We are forced to vote, but in reality, it’s never our votes that count,” laments a resident we met at the Kagazi Primary School.

Voters are demanding exemplary sanctions against those responsible for these practices and calling for civic training sessions for future village leaders so that they clearly understand their responsibilities.