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Burundi's dialogue commission hands over report to president

Xinhua, May 12, 2017 Adjust font size:

The National Inter-Burundian Dialogue Commission (CNDI) on Friday handed over the final report of consultations held with the east African country's citizens on ways of solving the country's issues, the commission chairman has said.

"The report focuses on several issues including social justice, economy, elections, the separation of powers and political stability. Several citizens for instance recommended the amendment of the national constitution and called for the removal of presidential terms to avoid electoral problems," Chairman of the National Inter-Burundian Dialogue Commission (CNDI), Justin Nzoyisaba, said.

According to him, over 26,000 respondents participated in the consultations nationwide since last year.

"The report reflects opinions of all those respondents," Nzoyisaba added.

The Burundian constitution is at the origin of the crisis the east African nation is facing since April 2015.

Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza was allowed to run the presidential election in May 2015 after the country's Constitutional Court issued a ruling whereby it said that the 2005-2010 presidential term should not be considered as a term because he was not "directly" elected by the population and instead by the parliament.

A crisis broke out since April 26, 2015 when President Nkurunziza decided to run his third term. Protests against Nkurunziza's third term bid turned into a failed coup on May 13, 2015.

Over 500 people in Burundi are reported to have been killed during the crisis while some 400,000 people fled to neighboring countries mostly Tanzania, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda since the outbreak of the crisis. Endit