Brussels, 02/03/2005 (Agence Europe) - European Commissioner for Development Louis Michel stated that he was pleased to acknowledge that the referendum held on February 28 on the new Constitution of Burundi “was generally conducted in a very satisfactory manner”, which is “all the more admirable since Burundi is recovering from a twelve-year conflict and has not conducted any elections since 1993”. The population “clearly voted for peace”, Mr. Michel was pleased to announce.
In an official statement, the Commission noted that, in spite of minor incidents, the referendum was conducted in good conditions and that “participation seems to have been massive” (around 88%). Although the final results are not yet available, figures concerning over 60% of all voters revealed that “Yes” would win the election, with over 90.5% of votes. The Commission stated that the adoption of the new Constitution will enable Burundi to advance “towards the conclusion of this transition” and in particular, in the forthcoming months, towards the organization of communal and legislative elections. The official statement stressed that at this point, the Commission had released one third of the budget dedicated to the elections, with financings attaining 4.4 million euros (including 4 million euros by way of funds managed by the UNDP and 400,000 euros as direct support to the CENI, the independent national electoral Commission).