TITLE:
The Participation of UPRONA Political Party in Legislative Elections Held in Burundi from 1961 to 2020
AUTHORS:
Lambert Ndikumana
KEYWORDS:
Participation, Political Party, UPRONA, Legislative Elections, Burundi
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.10 No.5,
May
20,
2022
ABSTRACT: UPRONA party was weakened by the death of its
charismatic leader prince Louis Rwagasore, on October 13, 1961, one year before
the independence of Burundi. The crisis which occurred in this country on October 21, 1993 had a negative impact on the
ideological stability of this party. In the beginning, it was observed that UPRONA party
was united and made of inseparable supporters as its name ABADASIGANA (people
who can never be separated) indicates. However, the disorder which was observed
in the country proved that within that party named UNION FOR NATIONAL PROGRESS,
there was no real union. The problem of division began in 1998 when Arusha
negotiations started. Some supported negotiations, whereas others wanted to
continue the war arguing that it was no use negotiating with the rebels. It is
in such a context that UPRONA began to lose a part of its electorate notably
because it had opted for joining G10 group, which was pro-Tutsi during those
negotiations. In this research, our main question was to know the size of the
outcome of the participation of UPRONA party in legislative elections which
took place in Burundi from 1961 up to 2020, with the aim of showing the level
of performance of that party in those elections. In order to answer that
question, the researcher used ICT, interview, the reading of the physical
documentation, and participant observation. The results which were found showed
that in 1961, UPRONA got a score of 90% in legislative elections, 63% in 1965,
100% in 1982; 21.86% in 1993, 10% in 2005, 11% in 2010; 2.49% in 2015, and
2.43% in 2020.