The Critical Analysis of the 2025 Electoral Process in Burundi, published by Action des Chrétiens pour l’Abolition de la Torture (ACAT-Burundi), provides an in-depth assessment of the context, conduct, and consequences of the legislative, communal, senatorial, and local elections held between June and August 2025.
Based on a qualitative and socio-historical methodology, the report identifies key factors that shaped voters’ behavior, including severe socio-economic hardship, a political and security environment dominated by fear and repression, and a restrictive legal and electoral framework. Despite an unprecedented economic crisis marked by widespread poverty, inflation, and shortages, socio-economic issues were largely sidelined during the campaign, which instead relied heavily on emotional, identity-based, and nationalist narratives rooted in past conflicts.
The analysis demonstrates that the 2025 elections were only superficially competitive. Numerous irregularities were reported by opposition parties, civil society organizations, and religious institutions, including intimidation of voters and candidates, exclusion of opposition representatives during vote counting, alleged fraud, and opaque management of electoral results. Ultimately, all institutional seats at every level were won by the ruling party, CNDD-FDD, resulting in an unprecedented concentration of political power.
According to the report, these outcomes consolidate a political and institutional hegemony and pave the way for an authoritarian, single-party, and exclusionary system, with serious implications for democracy, the rule of law, public freedoms, and human rights. The analysis also warns of Burundi’s increasing international isolation and the significant challenges this situation poses to good governance, economic development, and social cohesion.
In conclusion, ACAT-Burundi finds that the 2025 elections failed to meet the population’s expectations for democratic change and calls for deep reforms, the restoration of the rule of law, and genuine respect for human rights to prevent further political and social crises.
Please find the full analysis below:
Critical Analysis of the 2025 Electoral Process in Burundi – ACAT Burundi
