Since gain independence in 1962, Burundi has been ruled by the Tutsi minority, but the Hutu majority rebelled against the government in 1993 when its first democratically elected leader, a Hutu, was assassinated by Tuti paratroopers. Since then, ethnic warfare has ravaged the country and lands around it like Rwanda, culminating in the deaths of nearly a million people.

The country has been under a transitional government for the past four years, which is largely responsible for helping to heal the country to the point of reaching a peace agreement. In March, the country voted overwhelmingly in favor of a new constitution that grants majority rule while protecting minority rights, while making sure that all political parties are inclusive of both Tutsis and Hutus so that they aren’t ethnically based. Now, a rebel leader whose party was swept into power during parliamentary elections has been elected by the legislature to be the president. Local council elections will be held in September, ending the transition process.

Burundi’s parliament voted overwhelmingly Friday in favor of Pierre Nkurunziza as the country’s new president. He was unopposed, but needed to win at least a two-thirds parliamentary majority.

Mr. Nkurunziza, whose former Hutu rebel group was swept into power in national elections last month, will serve a five-year term.
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Mr. Nkurunziza, in his parliamentary speech a day before the vote, vowed to unify the country and end the Hutu-Tutsi ethnic rivalry that has plagued Burundi.

“The blood that was shed during the civil war ??????? should serve as a lesson,” he told the parliament. “We must discard the old methods of exclusion, favoritism and bad governance,” he said.

Jan Van Eck, a political analyst for the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa, has spent the past 11 years in Burundi.

He says President Nkurunziza’s government has several difficult hurdles ahead.

“I think, the government has a good chance to bring about durable stability in Burundi, if it does a number of things: Complete the peace process by negotiating with the remaining Hutu rebellion – the new president has already indicated that he’s willing to do that,” he said. “Secondly, if the new government, in spite of its vast majority, is willing to be inclusive in appointing people from other parties to the government. Thirdly, whether he will actually implement the process by which truth, reconciliation and justice can be achieved. And, the last one would be delivering benefits to ordinary Burundian civilians.”

Everyone, from the UN to the locals, is feeling hopeful about this. The new government will have to negotiate with the last remaining rebel group, the FNL, who has yet to sign on to the cease fire. This will indeed be tough, as the FNL hadn’t desisted in its attacks by the eve of the elections. However, some analysts believe that they are willing to go to the table, and that the attacks are low in magnitutude but high in visibility so as to play as a bargaining chip.

As always, we’ll just have to impatiently wait it out and see. A lot of progress has already been made, and the FNL giving in to the new democratic progress would be the big cherry on top of the sundae. Still, it takes decades for a country to become whole, especially one that was never whole to begin with. Perhaps we’ll see Burundi and the rest of Africa as thriving democracies one day.