Bujumbura, Burundi - Burundi goes to the polls Monday in local and parliamentary elections, despite international calls for a poll delay after weeks of violence over President Pierre Nkurunziza's bid to cling to power.
"We are determined, there will be no turning back," said a top official of the ruling CNDD-FDD party, which boycotted UN-led crisis talks this week, calling them a diversion "aimed to disrupt the elections."
But the party is also split, with one of the country's vice presidents -- and a key CNDD-FDD member -- fleeing to Belgium and adding his voice to calls for Nkurunziza to abandon his controversial third-term bid.
The central African nation was plunged into turmoil in late April when Nkurunziza launched his drive to serve a third consecutive five-year term in upcoming presidential elections.
His opponents say this is unconstitutional and a violation of a peace deal that ended 13 years of civil war in 2006.
Around 70 people have been killed in weeks of opposition protests that have been brutally suppressed, triggering an exodus of around 100,000 into neighbouring countries.
Some of the worst violence took place last month after a failed coup.
In a letter addressed to Nkurunziza, second vice president Gervais Rufyikiri urged the president to "put the interests of the Burundian people before your personal interests".
"Withdraw your presidential bid, because it violates the constitution," Rufyikiri wrote after fleeing the country.
But analysts said the ruling party appeared intent on pressing ahead with the elections, despite the country being mired in its worst crisis since the end of the 1993-2006 war.
Many fear a repeat of that violence, which split the country along ethnic lines, pitting the majority Hutus against the minority Tutsis.
AFP
