2020 Elections: Deadlines are firm and will be strictly respected!
The Briefing Issue #45 -- Monday, February 24, 2020
Dear RegionWeek Reader,
As we enter the last week of February, everyone who follows the news in Burundi may remember that from this week all the announced presidential candidates have from February 25 till March 5 to submit all the required documents for their candidacies to be confirmed.
This Monday, Dr. Pierre Claver KAZIHISE the president of the Burundi Electoral Commission announced that no extension will be granted on the deadlines for submitting applications. According to him, the files must be submitted by the legal representatives for political parties or independents.
“The CENI cannot change the legal provisions already adopted. It will comply with the regulatory provision”, Pierre Claver Kazihise, president of the CENI.
READ ALSO: Burundi CENI issues the detailed 2020 electoral calendar. See what it entails here.
In the headlines, this Monday
The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) has this Monday, February 24th elected Burundi’s Leontine Nzeyimana as the Chairperson to preside over the Regional Assembly sittings in the absence of the substantive speaker Martin Ngoga. In a secret ballot, Burundi’s lawmaker and former EAC minister Leontine Nzeyimana won the elections by 27 votes against 18 of Rwanda’s Fatuma Ndangiza.
The Burundi Minister of health signed a 3.5 million dollar donation agreement by UNFPA as part of the improvement of reproductive health. This donation will improve the conditions of the technical platform of health facilities. The Representative of UNFPA in Burundi announced that Burundi Government recorded good progress in terms of maternal health with a reduction in the maternal death rate which fell by 40%.
In the afternoon of this Monday, February 24, 2020, under the leadership of the Révérien Ndikuriyo, President of the Senate, the senators meeting in plenary session analyzed and unanimously adopted the bill establishing and granting the status of Patriotism Supreme Guide to President Pierre Nkurunziza.
Last Weekend
The East Africa community secretariat announced that the 21st Ordinary Meeting of the Summit of East African Community Heads of State that had been scheduled for Saturday, 29th February 2020 in Arusha, Tanzania has been postponed to a later date.
The postponement of the 21st Meeting of the Summit comes in the wake of a request by the Republic of South Sudan, which said it was currently in the process of forming a transitional government bringing together the government and opposition groups.
Also postponed is the 41st Extra-Ordinary Meeting of the EAC Council of Ministers that was scheduled to take place from 25th to 27th February 2020 at the EAC Headquarters in Arusha. The 41st Council was supposed to precede and make preparations for the Summit meeting.
Fabrice Iranzi
Founding Editor, RegionWeek.com
IN THE REGION
Uganda Revenue Authority has said another milk producer has been stopped from exporting milk to Kenya. In an interview last week, Mr. Ian Rumanyika, the URA manager corporate affairs, told Daily Monitor Lakeside Dairies had written to them requesting that it is allowed to return milk it had exported to Kenya after a series of hostilities by Kenyan security and government agencies.
“We received a letter from Lakeside Dairies asking us [URA] to allow them to return their [milk] products because they were being seized by Kenyan authorities. They asked us to allow them to return their products. We compiled,” he said. Mr. Rumanyika was responding to Daily Monitor inquiries in regard to the continued hostility against Ugandan milk in Kenya. (DM)Rwanda has issued a temporary ban on the import of tilapia fingerlings as a means of protecting its fish from the threat of the tilapia lake virus. A statement from fisheries ministry reads: "All fish farmers should adopt preventive measures by stopping to plant fingerlings from anywhere; not exchange their fishery and fish farming equipment; take care of their ponds and be attentive to the strange symptoms which may occur to their fish.”(UCN)
Detained Tanzanian journalist Erick Kabendera has been freed seven months after he was arrested. He had been charged with money laundering, tax evasion and leading organized crime.Mr. Kabendera's release comes after he entered into a plea-bargain agreement with the prosecution. His detention was seen as an example of rising repression against the press and critics of Tanzania's President John Magufuli who came into office in 2015. (BBC)
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