Six people, including a policeman, were killed as gunfire and grenade attacks rocked Bujumbura on Independence Day as President Pierre Nkurunziza’s party waited to be declared the winner of Parliamentary elections that the opposition boycotted.

“Five civilians who were armed and one policeman were killed in an operation to disarm those who illegally possess firearms,” Burundi police spokesman Pierre Nkurikiye said.

However, residents in Mutakura and Cibitoke where the attack was made alleged the number of civilians killed was higher than that confirmed by the police.

The deaths come in the wake of heavy gunfire and grenade explosions that lasted for more than 9 hours in the two Bujumbura suburbs that are believed to be the stronghold of opposition to President Nkurunziza’s bid for third term in Presidential elections slated for July 15.

He will run alone because of the boycott after talks on a peaceful resolution to the crisis flopped. He is bidding for a controversial third term in office despite the country’s Constitution allowing only two terms.

His interpretation that his bid is valid, having been elected first in 2005 by Parliament rather than through universal suffrage, was validated by the country’s Judiciary.

Mr Nkurikiye said the operation would continue. “We have already confiscated dozens of ammunitions from these areas,” he said. Residents, however, accuse the government of deploying its own militia to harass them.

“The government is saying that is carrying out the disarmament operation. Why don’t they first target the youth militia Imbonerakure who continuing to cause instability in the country? What is happening is the targeting of opposition followers including mine who were arrested,” said opposition leader Agathon Rwasa.

Since last Saturday, heavy gun fire and shelling have been witnessed in Burundi’s capital as more have continued to flee the country for fear of the worst.

“We are still investigating on who are carrying out these attacks at night, they have attacked police stations but we are yet to know exactly who these people are,” said the Burundi police spokesman.

There is growing fear in the citizens that a new rebellion against president Nkurunziza may arise soon, “we do have fear because most of the youth have left the country and we don’t know the whereabouts, they used to protest on these streets some were arrested but many fled,” said a resident in Cibitoke suburb.

As the country is waiting for the controversial parliamentary and communal poll results that kicked off earlier on Monday, it is already clear as the ruling party will pull off a landslide victory as indicated by the preliminary results.

The Burundi electoral Commission said that there was a large number of voters turnout on Monday with at least 80 per centof the 4 million voters, “all went well and the turnout was really satisfying as many Burundians had been waiting for the day for some time,” said Pierre Claver Ndayicariye the chairman of the Burundi electoral commission.

The East African Community and African Union had earlier on called on the Burundian government to delay elections and proceed with the inter-Burundi dialogue in order to create a conducive environment for free and fair elections, “we still call on Burundi government to postpone the elections and carry on with the dialogue because this is the key to solve the ongoing crisis,” said the newly appointed UN inter-Burundi dialogue facilitator Abdoulaye Bathily.

With the suspension of aid by Belgium, German and other international partners that were to facilitate in the preparation of the elections, the European Union earlier this week announced that it had pulled out its observation mission in the country after its suspension of more than a month.

African Union and EAC stayed away from deploying the electoral observers leaving the UN the only international observation mission in the country.

The United States was deeply disappointed that the Burundian government moved forward with parliamentary elections “despite woefully inadequate conditions for them to be credible, disregarding the strong urging of the AU , the UN secretary general and many other voices calling for delay,” .

“We call on president Nkurunziza to place the welfare of his country and people ahead of his wish to serve a third term by heeding the calls for dialogue and demonstrating respect for the Arusha Agreement including its provisions on term limits,” said John Kirby the US department spokesman.