Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is in Burundi to facilitate dialogue that will lead to peaceful elections in the tiny central African country.
Museveni, who was recently named as the lead mediator by his East African counterparts, is expected to hold talks with President Pierre Nkurunziza and opposition members, in a bid to resolve the conflict that has engulfed the troubled Burundi.
In April this year Burundi was thrown in turmoil when president Nkurunziza declared he would stand for elections that had been scheduled for June 15. In the resulting chaos, on May 13 as he was attending the East Africa Summit on Burundi, Nkurunziza was temporarily deposed by army and police officers, only to bounce back as president a day later.
Since then he has announced that the elections will instead be held at the end of July, a development regional analysts and his counterparts are afraid might spark off another round of deadly protests.
In power since 2005, President Nkurunziza argues that his first term that ended in 2010 was not attained through universal adult suffrage, and that constitutionally he is entitled to another five years as president, should he seek to stand, something he has already done.
However, his opponents have shredded his assertions, arguing he has served his two five-year mandate, and as such should not seek re-election for the ‘third term’.
