Burundian presidential election, 1993
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Burundi |
 This article is part of the series: |
|
|
|
Other countries · Atlas Politics Portal |
Burundi’s second multiparty presidential election since independence in 1962 was held on 1 June 1993. Elections had been held in 1965, in which Hutu politicians won a majority of elections, but the Tutsi monarch nullified the elections and the military assumed control of the country. More than 30 years of alternating military and single party rule ensued between 1962 and 1993. This period was marked by sporadic, but deadly violence between the ethnic Tutsi minority (which controlled the government and army) and the Hutu majority.
Contents |
[edit] Candidates
Pierre Buyoya - Incumbent president who seized power in a 1987 military coup. A Tutsi from Bururi province, he was the ruling UPRONA (Union for National Progress) party's presidential candidate. He ran on a platform of national unity. Two predominantly Tutsi parties, the Rally for Democracy and Economic and Social Development (RADDES) and the Social Democratic Party (PSD), supported Buyoya's candidacy.
Melchior Ndadaye - Leader and candidate of the Front for Democracy in Burundi (FRODEBU), a predominantly Hutu party founded in 1986 and officially registered in 1992. Ndadaye's candidacy was supported by three other mainly Hutu parties - Rally for the People of Burundi (RPB), People's Party (PP), and the Liberal Party (PL).
Pierre-Claver Sendegeya - Ethnic Hutu and candidate of the monarchist People's Reconciliation Party (PRP).
[edit] Election Day and Results
Voting proceeded peacefully without major incidents on 1 June 1993. Voter turnout was a massive 97.3% (Out of 2,355,126 registered voters, a total of 2,291,746 voted). Final results showed Ndadaye winning 65% of the vote, followed by Buyoya with 32% and Sendegeya finishing a distant third with 1%. The results confounded forecasts that expected Pierre Buyoya to win with a similar majority.
None of the three candidates contested the results and international election observers declared the poll free, fair, and transparent.
[edit] Election Aftermath
Melchior Ndadaye's election victory put the FRODEBU party in prime position for a comfortable win in legislative elections held on 29 June 1993.
Ndadaye was sworn in as the first Hutu president of Burundi on 10 July 1993. His rule would be short, however, as he was assassinated on 21 October 1993 during a military coup by elements of the predominantly Tutsi army. Thereafter, the country plunged into a full-scale civil war that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.
[edit] See also
|
|||||||||||||||||
