Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza’s controversial bid to stand for a third term in office suffered a new blow on Saturday after it emerged that a top election official had fled the country.
Caritas Ndirokeye is reported to have fled to Rwanda on Friday evening having handed in her resignation .
A second election board member is also said to have left the country.
However spokesman of the commission known as Ceni, Prosper Ntahorwamiye, has told CCTV that the commission is yet to receive the resignation letter and information that the vice chair has indeed fled the country.
She joins a senior judge and a host of dissidents who have fled Burundi since the president announced his decision to stand for a now controversial third term.
This developments comes as East African leaders and the Heads of state from Angola and South Africa are set to hold a emergency summit in Tanzania’s commercial capital Dareesalam on Sunday, in a bid to resolve the crisis
Human Rights Watch said Burundi has been gripped by “pervasive fear”, while the International Crisis Group, a conflict-prevention think tank, said Burundi was headed back into conflict unless the president backed down. AFP reported.
