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Power-sharing as a fragile safety valve in times of electoral turmoil: the costs and benefits of Burundi's 2010 elections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2011

Stef Vandeginste
Stef Vandeginste*
Affiliation:
Postdoctoral Fellow, Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO), Faculty of Law, University of Antwerp, Prinsstraat 13, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This paper analyses the local, presidential and legislative elections that took place in Burundi between May and September 2010. Electoral results are presented, analysed and interpreted against the background of Burundi's constitutional consociational power-sharing regime. The power-sharing arrangement, which was negotiated during Burundi's recently completed peace process, saved the pluralistic nature of the elections but may itself fall victim to the outcome of these same elections, with the dominant party CNDD-FDD obtaining an overwhelming majority in parliament and controlling most of the instruments needed to further establish its hegemony. Political pluralism, both within and outside the institutions, is under threat. As evidenced by developments in the early aftermath of the electoral marathon, conjunctural alliances between opposition groups and the incumbent regime's increasingly authoritarian response to dissidence may well result in renewed instability and insecurity.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 49 , Issue 2 , June 2011 , pp. 315 - 335
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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