{Burundi’s electoral commission has announced that President Pierre Nkurunziza won a new term in office after an election marred by violence and a boycott by the opposition.}<\/p>\n
Pierre Claver Ndayicariye, head of the electoral commission, told reporters on Friday that Nkurunziza had garnered 69.41 percent of the votes cast in the polls that took place on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Nkrunziza’s nearest rival, Agathon Rwasa, took 18.99 percent.<\/p>\n
Nkurunziza’s decision in April to seek a third term had plunged the small east African nation into its biggest crisis since an ethnically charged civil war ended in 2005.<\/p>\n
The opposition says Nkurunziza’s bid violated the constitution.<\/p>\n
The vote took place on Tuesday, despite calls by African leaders and Western powers for it to be delayed due to the tensions in the country.<\/p>\n
{{Unity government}}<\/p>\n
A day after the election, however, country’s leading opposition politician called on President Nkurunziza to hold talks with rivals and form a national unity government, saying it could help avert a new civil war.<\/p>\n
A presidential official had told the Reuters news agency that Nkurunziza would not oppose forming a national unity government in the event of him winning the election.<\/p>\n
“Some people think that a unity government can be a short-term solution for the stability of Burundi, but everybody knows that it is not a long-term one,” Al Jazeera\u2019s Haru Mutasa.<\/p>\n
“Politicians don\u2019t trust each other. It is hard for them to sit at the same table and work in the same government.”<\/p>\n
Dozens were killed before the July 21 election, which saw weeks of demonstrations, a failed coup in May and clashes between rebel soldiers and the army as the government took harsh measures against opposition protesters.<\/p>\n
The weeks of protests and violence has forced more than 175,000 people to take refuge in neighbouring countries.<\/p>\n
Doctors without Borders told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that refugee camp for Burundians in Tanzania was simply not coping with the number of new arrivals.<\/p>\n
MSF said that refugee facilities had now reached “breaking point”.<\/p>\n
Amnesty International in a report said on Thursday that the police used excessive lethal force against protesters opposed to Nkurunziza’s bid for a third term.<\/p>\n
The rights-advocacy group, in its report Braving Bullets – Excessive force in Policing Demonstrations in Burundi, said that authorities “repressed demonstrations as if they were an insurrection”.<\/p>\n
{{Aljazeera}}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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