BURUNDI: Court ruling ends power vacuum after Nkurunziza’s death

The power vacuum arising from the death of President Pierre Nkurunziza on Monday has ended following a ruling by a top court in Burundi ordering that President-elect Evariste Ndayishimiye should be sworn in as soon as possible.

The Constitutional Court made the ruling on Friday after the cabinet decided to refer to the court, as the Speaker of parliament, Pascal Nyabenda, should have become the interim leader, legally.

However, Burundi’s top judges said that in the constitution, the interim period under the speaker of parliament was designed as a time to hold fresh elections, but the president-elect’s recent victory made this unnecessary.

This came after the government denied reports that the mother of the late president has also died.

READ ALSO: Burundi’s President, Pierre Nkurunziza, dies at 55

Mr Ntahorwamiye said Mr Nkurunziza’s mother “is sick but not dead”. He added that the nature of her illness was a private matter.

In a related development, the country’s first lady Denise Nkurunziza returned home on Tuesday evening from Kenya where she had been hospitalised.

She was discharged on Tuesday, an official at the private Kenyan hospital where she was staying told the BBC, without giving details about her condition.

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