{"id":6775,"date":"2015-07-31T07:00:49","date_gmt":"2015-07-31T07:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=6775"},"modified":"2015-07-31T07:00:49","modified_gmt":"2015-07-31T07:00:49","slug":"burundis-opposition-leader-rwasa-becomes-deputy-speaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2015\/07\/31\/burundis-opposition-leader-rwasa-becomes-deputy-speaker\/","title":{"rendered":"Burundi’s opposition leader Rwasa becomes deputy speaker"},"content":{"rendered":"

Burundi’s opposition leader Agathon Rwasa has been elected as a deputy speaker of parliament, despite strident criticism of recent legislative and presidential polls.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There has been a political crisis since President Pierre Nkurunziza announced he would run for a third term.<\/p>\n

Mr Rwasa withdrew from this month’s presidential election and described Mr Nkurunziza’s victory as “a joke”.<\/p>\n

He now says he will “play the game” to bring peace, AFP news agency reports.<\/p>\n

Mr Rwasa supported the protests, that began in April, against Mr Nkurunziza’s third-term bid in which more than 70 people have died in clashes with the police.<\/p>\n

There was also a failed coup attempt in May.<\/p>\n

Mr Rwasa’s opposition coalition also called for a boycott of June’s parliamentary elections, but with its name on the ballot paper it still won 21 seats.<\/p>\n

There is a faltering negotiation process, chaired by Uganda, that is aimed at solving the crisis.<\/p>\n

Mr Rwasa took up his seat in parliament to some surprise on Monday saying that as the talks were still going on it was worth participating in the political process.<\/p>\n

Fellow opposition leader Charles Nditije said Mr Rwasa’s move betrayed those who died during the protests.<\/p>\n

He was elected as one of parliament’s deputy speakers with the backing of MPs from Mr Nkuruniziza’s CNDD-FDD party.<\/p>\n

The BBC’s Prime Ndikumagenge in Burundi’s capital, Bujumbura, says that it is difficult to see what Mr Rwasa’s strategy is.<\/p>\n

But the opposition leader may now have more influence on the politics of the country in his new post, he says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Burundi’s opposition leader Agathon Rwasa has been elected as a deputy speaker of parliament, despite strident criticism of recent legislative and presidential polls. There has been a political crisis since President Pierre Nkurunziza announced he would run for a third term. Mr Rwasa withdrew from this month’s presidential election and described Mr Nkurunziza’s victory as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6775\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}