In the public conference held in Kayanza province last Friday 29 December 2017, Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza said the recent election of the EALA Speaker did not respect the regulations governing the East African Community.
President Pierre Nkurunziza: “Maybe there were other unknown motives behind the election”
“The EALA Speaker is elected following the rotation system. Uganda was the previous chair of the Assembly. Burundi, Rwanda and South Sudan could not present their candidates at the same time”, he said.
President Nkurunziza said it was a turn for Burundi to chair the assembly following the alphabetical order. He says Burundi government couldn’t accept the outcome of the election as it was full of irregularities. “Maybe there were other unknown motives behind the election”, he said.
He said Burundian MPs of the East African Legislative Assembly would have a seat in the Assembly like others but would never accept the results of the election of the EALA Speaker “unless they give us the reasons confirming that the regulations governing the community have been changed”.
Burundi President has said Burundi MPs in the East African Legislative Assembly will next time be vigilant and plan different strategies to be adopted.
On 19 December, Martin Ngoga from Rwanda was elected as the new Speaker of the fourth East African Legislative Assembly-EALA. Burundi and the United Republic of Tanzania were not present in the session and rejected the results of the election. However, Tanzania government has recently accepted the result of the EALA election. On 25 December, Tanzania EALA MPs said in a debate on AZAM TV that the most important thing to put forward were consensus and understanding. “The emergency today is to let EALA MPs continue with their daily activities, address issues and find solutions together”, said Abdulah Mukame, Tanzanian EALA MP.
IWACU Open Data
