Burundi: Presidential election - timeline | Keesing's World News Archives

Burundi: Presidential election - timeline

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June 2010. President Pierre Nkurunziza is re-elected unopposed in presidential elections boycotted by the opposition.
January 2010. State radio reports that the armed forces have prevented a coup aimed at overthrowing President Nkurunziza.
June 2009. President Nkurunziza appoints several senior officials of the former rebel Forces for National Liberation (FNL) to senior government posts.
April-May 2008. Fresh fighting breaks out between government forces and the FNLhostilities end when a new ceasefire agreement is signed.
December 2006. The mandate of the UN peacekeeping operation in Burundi ends.
September 2006. After some four months of negotiations in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), the government and the last active Hutu rebel group, the FNL, sign a comprehensive ceasefire agreement.
August 2005. Nkurunziza, the candidate of the former rebel pro-Hutu National Council for the Defence of Democracy-Forces for the Defence of Democracy (CNDD-FDD), is elected as the new president of Burundi by the new legislature.
July 2005. Multiparty legislative elections are won by the former rebel pro-Hutu CNDD-FDD.
February 2005. A new constitution is approved in a national referendum.
August 2004. Some 160 Congolese Tutsis are massacred in the Gatumba refugee camp on the outskirts of Bujumbura (the capital).
May 2004. The UN Security Council authorises the deployment of a peacekeeping operation in Burundi.
November 2003. The main Hutu rebel group, the CNDD-FDD, signs a comprehensive peace agreement with the governmentthe Hutu-rebel FNL remains active.
July 2003. The Hutu rebel FNL mounts a major assault on Bujumbura.
April 2003. President Pierre Buyoya, a Tutsi, hands the presidency to Domitien Ndayizeye, a Hutu, under the terms of the October 2002 Arusha peace agreement.
June 2002. Hutu rebels, members of the FNL, launch a series of co-ordinated attacks in Bujumbura.
January 2002. Jean Minami, a Hutu, is elected as speaker of the transitional legislature.
November 2001. A new transitional government is formed, composed of members of both the Tutsi and Hutu ethnic groups.
July 2001. President Buyoya (a Tutsi) signs a peace accord with the main Hutu parties in Arusha (Tanzania) ushering in a three-year period of transitionat the same time, mutinous Tutsi soldiers launch a failed coup attempt in Bujumbura.
February 1999. Regional economic sanctions, imposed after the July 1996 military coup, are lifted.
June 1998. Pierre Buyoya and the National Assembly agree on a transitional constitution under which Buyoya is formally sworn in as president.
March 1997. Security officers foil a plot to assassinate President Buyoya.
September 1996. The Tutsi-dominated military regime faces its first serious threat since seizing power when Hutu rebels launch an offensive across the north of the country.
July 1996. The Tutsi-dominated army seize power and appoint Maj. Buyoya, a Tutsi, as president, in place of Sylvestre Ntibantunganya, a Hutu.
September 1994. Under the terms of an all-party "convention on government", interim President Ntibantunganya is sworn in as head of state.
April 1994. President Cyprien Ntaryamira is killed when the aircraft in which he is travelling with President Juvénal Habyarimana of Rwanda is shot down near Kigali, the Rwandan capital, an action which triggers further ethnic violence. The speaker of the National Assembly, Ntibantunganya, is named as acting president.
January 1994. Against a background of continuing tension between the Tutsi and Hutu communities, the National Assembly elects Ntaryamira, a Hutu, as president in succession to Melchior Ndadaye, his fellow Hutu.
October 1993. Tutsi soldiers assassinate President Ndadaye and the country is plunged into an ethnic conflict which eventually claims some 300,000 lives.
June 1993. Ndadaye, leader of the opposition Burundi Front for Democracy (Front pour la dmocratie au Burundi, FRODEBU) and a member of the majority Hutu tribe, is elected president after defeating the incumbent Buyoya in the country's first multiparty presidential elections; FRODEBU win accompanying legislative elections.
March 1992. A new constitution is given overwhelming popular approval in a referendum.
December 1991. Thousands of Hutu refugees flee into Rwanda and Zaïre to avoid heavy fighting in Bujumbura and the north-western provinces of Cibitoke and Kayanza.
February 1991. A National Unity Charterwhich calls for ending military rule, restoring the constitution, and ensuring harmony between Hutu and Tutsiis overwhelmingly endorsed by voters in a national referendum.
October 1988. In an attempt to promote reconciliation following recent inter-tribal fighting, a Hutu politician, Adrien Sibomana, is appointed to the re-created post of prime minister.
August 1988. Thousands of Hutus are massacred by Tutsis during intense inter-tribal fighting in northern Burundimany flee to Rwanda.
September 1987. President Jean-Baptiste Bagaza is overthrown in a couphe is replaced as president by Buyoya, a Tutsi and a member of the Union for National Progress (Unite pour le Progrès National, UPRONA) central committee.
August 1984. President Bagaza is returned unopposed in the first direct presidential elections since he seized power in November 1976.
July 1983. Lt-Gen. Michel Micombero, president from 1966 to 1976, dies in exile in Somalia.
October 1982. National Assembly elections are held and UPRONA, the sole legal party, wins all 65 seats
November 1981. A new constitution is approved by referendumit confirms the dominant role of UPRONA as the sole ruling party.
November 1976. President Micombero is overthrown by a group of army officers led by Lt-Col Bagaza, a Tutsi.
October 1974. At an extraordinary congress, UPRONA reappoints President Micombero as head of state and of government for a seven-year term.
July 1974. The first constitution of the Republic of Burundi comes into force.
May-July 1973. Renewed fighting between rebel Hutus and the armed forces leads to mass killings.
April 1972. Some 150,000 people, mostly Hutus, are massacred in inter-tribal fighting after the deposed Mwami Ntare V is killed, supposedly by Hutus.
October 1971. Burundi and the People's Republic of China resume diplomatic relations which had been broken off by Burundi in January 1965, following the assassination of Prime Minister Pierre Ngendandumwe.
December 1969. Nineteen military men and four civilians are executed for plotting to overthrow President Micombero.
November 1966. Capt. Micombero, the (Tutsi) prime minister, deposes Mwami Ntare V and declares himself president of the new Republic of Burundi.
July 1966. Mwambutsa IV is overthrown by his son, Prince Charles Ndizeye, who is later crowned as Mwami (King) Ntari V.
October 1965. An abortive coup by Hutu soldiers and police officers is brutally suppressed and over 50 leaders of the revolt are executed.
May 1965. Elections for a new National Assemblythe first since independenceresult in a majority for the ruling Tutsi-dominated UPRONA party.
January 1965. Prime Minister Ngendandumwe, a Hutu, is assassinated in Bujumbura.
July 1962. The UN Trust Territory of Ruanda-Urundi achieves independence as two separate Statesthe Republic of Rwanda and the Kingdom of Burundi.
October 1961. Prince Rwagasore is assassinated and is replaced as prime minister by his brother-in-law, André Muhirwa.
September 1961. In legislative elections, UPRONA gains an overwhelming and largely unexpected victory and Ganwa (Prince) Louis Rwagasore, eldest son of the Mwami Mwambutsa IV of Urundi, takes office as prime minister.
December 1946. Belgian-controlled Ruanda-Urundi is placed under UN trusteeship.

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Burundi: Presidential election - timeline

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