A regional civil society coalition has lost its bid to have Burundi suspended or expelled from the East African Community, after the regional court dismissed a lawsuit challenging the third term of Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza.

The Arusha-based East African Court of Justice (EACJ) on Thursday dismissed the application by the East African Civil Society Organisations’ Forum, (EACSOF) saying it did not meet the requirements of the EAC and Rules of the Court.

“This court has found that the present reference does not meet the muster of the treaty and the same has to fail,” the ruling reads.

A three-judge bench dismissed EACSOF’s application to declare that the decision of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Burundi that allowed President Nkurunziza to run for another term violated the Arusha Peace Accord and the Constitution of Burundi.

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“This court has primacy in the interpretation of the Treaty, but that mandate, in our considered view, does not extend to the interrogation of decisions of other courts in a judicial manner such as is being asked of us in the present reference,” the court said.

EACSOF claimed, in its petition, that President Nkurunziza’s candidacy was in violation of the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement for Burundi of 2000, the Burundi Constitution of 2005, and thereby breached principles of the rule of law and consequently also violated the objectives, fundamental and operational principles of the EAC Treaty.

EACSOF had requested the court to issue an order directing the Secretary-General of the EAC to advise the EAC Heads of State Summit on whether Burundi should be suspended or expelled from the Community.

The EAC Treaty provides that the Summit may suspend a partner state from taking part in the activities of the Community if that state fails to observe and fulfil the fundamental principles and objectives of the Treaty. The Summit may also expel a partner state for gross and persistent violation of the principles and objectives of the Treaty after giving such partner state 12 months’ written notice.

EACSOF also wanted the court to declare illegal decisions of the Burundi electoral commission (CENI) that allowed Nkurunziza to contest, as well as that of his party CNDD-FDD to nominate him as its presidential candidate.

CENI, that was also sued alongside the Secretary General of the EAC as second and third respondent respectively neither filed any pleading nor appeared in the proceedings, and was removed from the list of respondents with the court saying that the commission can’t be sued as it has no legal personality to be sued before EACJ.