Burundi will swear in president-elect Evariste Ndayishimiye on Thursday, a week after the sudden death of outgoing President Pierre Nkurunziza.
The Constitutional court ruled last week that the president-elect be sworn in as soon as possible. Ndayishimiye, was originally planned to be sworn in August. He will take the oath of office Thursday in the capital, Gitega.
Ndayishimiye was handpicked by the ruling CNDD-FDD party to succeed Nkurunziza. He went on to secure more than 60 per cent of the vote in the May election that was unsuccessfully contested by the opposition over allegations of fraud.
Ndayishimiye will serve a seven-year term, pending his reelection. A court ruling issued last Friday said, "It is necessary to proceed as soon as possible to the swearing in of elected president Evariste Ndayishimiye."
Nkurunziza died last week Tuesday at age 55 at a Burundian hospital where he had been taken two days earlier. The government said the cause of death was a heart attack. His wife was airlifted to Nairobi late last month to be treated for COVID-19, sparking rumours that Nkurunziza also died of the disease.
Nkurunziza served three terms as Burundi's president, taking over at end of a brutal civil war that killed an estimated 300,000 people. His decision to run for a third term in 2015 sparked protests and violence that killed hundreds of people and prompted hundreds of thousands more to flee the country.
Ndayishimiye, a retired general who Nkurunziza picked as his successor, won the May 2020 presidential election, and his term of office was originally set to begin on August 20.
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