Ten days after the EAC heads of state summit urged Burundi to delay the polls for a few weeks, President Pierre Nkurunzinza postponed the elections; but the opposition has rejected the new dates.

An executive decree issued last Wednesday pushed the presidential poll to July 15 from June 26, and the parliamentary vote from June 5 to June 29. The new dates have been rejected by opposition leaders and civil society groups, pushing peace talks between them and the government to the verge of collapse.

At the same time, the UN mediator has quit his role as the facilitator of dialogue between the rival parties in the Burundi crisis.

Said Djinnit, the UN Special Envoy for the Great Lakes region, has been leading consultative political dialogue between the rival parties. The talks have been called off several times over disagreements on what the agenda should be.

The talks were expected to resume, but failed to take off after the opposition refused to participate until the mediator was replaced, forcing Mr Djinnit to quit on Thursday.

“The UN is doing great work in bringing back peace to the country. However, we call on them to change the mediator since he has been showing bias,” said Francois Nyamoya, the secretary general of the Movement for Solidarity and Democracy party.

“We are not going to attend the meeting if he is still the facilitator,” Mr Nyamoya added.

Before Mr Djinnit’s exit, progress had been made on the need to disarm the notorious ruling part-leaning militia, the Imbonerakure, who have unleashed a wave of violence against civilians, leading to the displacement of more than 100,000 Burundians.

Burundi’s Interior Minister Edouard Nduwimana recently announced that the disarmament will take place before the elections, following intense pressure from the UN, regional leaders, the United States and the European Union.

The opposition however, remains sceptical as to whether the government can disarm the militia just two weeks before the election; they have now rejected the new dates until conditions for holding a free and fair election are met.

However, government spokesman Felipe Nzobanariba says the Independent National Elections Commission (CENI) will not review the new poll dates.

The point of departure between the two rival parties is whether the president’s disputed third-term bid should be part of the agenda, and the kind of reforms needed in CENI before the country goes to the polls.

Opposition leaders want President Nkurunzinza to withdraw his third-term bid, saying it violates the country’s Constitution and the Arusha Accord; their position on this is “non-negotiable.”

“All we want is Nkurunziza to step down. The Constitution and the Arusha Agreement are clear. His third term is not negotiable.  Burundians will not allow another five-year term for President Nkurunziza,” said Pierre Claver Mbonimpa, chairman of the Burundian Association for the Protection of Human Rights and Detained Persons.

“If we can’t talk about the president’s third term, then what is the point of the meeting? The third-term issue is the main cause of the crisis in the country,” said Jean Minani the chair of the Frodebu-Nyakuri party.

But the government says the president was cleared to run by the country’s Constitutional court, and that the election commission has given him the green light, having been nominated by his party to contest in the polls.

“The issue of the president’s third term was sorted out by the court, so it is not negotiable,” Mr Nzobonariba said.

Reported by Trevor Analo and Moses Havyarimana