Ex-Hutu rebel group heads Burundi poll

A former Hutu rebel group has made a strong showing in Burundi's local elections, the country's first multi-party poll in 12 …

A former Hutu rebel group has made a strong showing in Burundi's local elections, the country's first multi-party poll in 12 years, provisional results showed today.

Burundi held the landmark poll to choose councils for 129 administrative districts on Friday, in a prelude to parliamentary and presidential elections aimed at establishing democracy after a decade of ethnic conflict.

The vote is seen as a test of strength of the 30 Hutu and Tutsi parties vying for seats on local councils in a country split between Tutsis and Hutus who represent 85 per cent of the population of about eight million.

Early results showed that the Hutu Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD) was leading in more than 50 districts, in polls that are expected to determine the composition of the upper house of parliament.

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The FDD joined a power-sharing transitional government in 2003, raising hopes of peace after civil war broke out in the tiny coffee-producing country in 1993.

Some 300,000 people were killed in fighting that pitted rebels from the Hutu majority against minority Tutsis who have long dominated politics through the army. The FDD has campaigned to restore democracy, which it says was snuffed out by the 1993 assassination of Melchior Ndadaye, the first elected Hutu leader of the country.

"The advantage they have is that they ... can't be accused of complicity with the previous regime, therefore they look more fresh," said analyst Jan Van Eck. "People are very much voting emotionally. There's not been enough time to do voter education, so it's difficult to draw any conclusions," he added.