African opposition figures are rallying behind their kind, Burundi’s CNL party leader Agathon Rwasa, who was controversially dethroned while he was on a trip out of the country.
The National Freedom Congress (known by its French acronym CNL), which was founded by Mr Rwasa in 2019, elected new leaders in a controversial meeting held on Sunday in Ngozi, north of the country.
Mr Rwasa first opposed the congress, then Burundian security forces deployed heavily, including barring and arresting some of those suspected of planning to disrupt it.
Nestor Girukwishaka was elected as the president of the CNL party for a five-year term. Mr Rwasa was away in Tanzania, attending a convention of the opposition party ACT-Wazalendo.
The Pan African Opposition Leaders Network, a grouping of political parties in the opposition on the continent, accused the Burundian government on Sunday of working with “a few rebels from the Congres National pour la Liberte of Burundi,” as the CNL is known in French to “hatch a plot to unlawfully take over the leadership of the party from its legitimate and bonafide leader Hon Agathon Rwasa.”
“We expect Burundi and indeed all the countries in our Jumuiya [community] and the continent to be working to strengthen the state of democracy, rule of law and human rights and not to destroy it. Strong opposition parties are a necessary component of multiparty democracy and work for the benefit of the people, our subregion, our continent and the world,” they said in a joint statement.
The network’s members include Narc Kenya leader Martha Karua, Dorothy Semu, the new leader of Act-Wazalendo in Tanzania, former ACT Wazalendo party leader Zitto Kabwe, Chadema’s John Mnyika of Tanzania, Ugandan opposition chief Kizza Besigye and Yassine Fall of Senegal’s Pastef.
ACT-Wazalendo said in a statement that Mr Rwasa remains the legitimate leader of CNL.
“We call upon the Burundian authorities to refrain from the unjustified interference in the affairs of the Congres Nationale pour la Liberte or any other opposition group, and to uphold principles of democracy, the rule of law and human rights outlined in the East African Community Treaty,” said Mwanaisha Mdeme, Secretary for Foreign Affairs for ACT-Wazalendo.
Mr Rwasa has been Burundi’s opposition chief since 2020, seeking to challenge the policies of the ruling party CNDD-FDD. And ahead of the legislative elections next year, the new turn of leadership in CNL has raised concerns from opposition groups of interference.
Burundian authorities did not immediately respond to the allegations even though police unusually watched over the congress.
Source: The East African
