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Burundi
Women in decision-making positions
33%
Members of local deliberative bodies are women (1,164 elected women)
No woman is Head of State or Government
38%
Parliamentarians are women
33%
Ministers are women

Government organization

Burundi is a unitary republic with two spheres of government: central and local.

One tier of central government and one tier of local government composed of municipalities.
Central government
  • Head of State: The President of the Republic is directly elected by voters.
  • Head of Government: The Prime Minister is appointed by the President after prior approval of the candidacy by the National Assembly and the Senate voting separately and by an absolute majority of their members.
  • Legislative body: Parliament is a bicameral legislature, with an upper house (the Senate) and a lower house (the National Assembly). In the Senate, two members per province are elected by an electoral college and three people of the Twa ethnicity are co-opted. A minimum rate of 30% women is guaranteed. In the National Assembly, members are directly elected by voters and three deputies issuing from the Twa ethnicity are co-opted. The National Assembly is composed of 60% Hutu and 40% Tutsi and a minimum of 30% women.
  • Executive body: The Government, presided over by the Prime Minister, is composed of ministers appointed by the President of the Republic on a proposal from the Prime Minister and in consultation with the Vice President. The Government is composed of at most 60% Hutu ministers and at most 40% Tutsi ministers. A minimum composition of 30% female is assured.
Local government
  • Organization: Local government is organized into one tier of 119 municipalities.
  • Competencies: Local government is responsible for issuing administrative acts, civil status acts and identification acts and land certificates; raising taxes; the adoption, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the communal community development plan; the adoption and execution of municipal programs and budgets. In the exercise of its powers, the municipality benefits from a transfer of resources which it can freely dispose of under the conditions set by law.
  • Ministerial oversight: Ministry Of The Interior, Community Development And Public Security

Overview of local government

Local government composition
Municipalities (communes)

Deliberative body: The municipal council is composed of at least 15 elected members. Additional members may be co-opted if the gender and ethnicity balance is not reached. A board, consisting of a president, a vice-president and the municipal administrator (who is de facto the secretary of the board) is elected by and from the municipal council to preside over it; the president is not vested with executive powers.

Executive body: The municipal administrator is elected by and from the municipal council.

Local government elections
Electoral system

Electoral system for deliberative bodies: proportional representation (closed list)

  • The members of the municipal councils are elected by direct universal suffrage with proportional representation. Candidates from political parties or coalitions of political parties are elected on the basis of blocked lists with the principle of strongest remainder, while independents are elected in an individual capacity. There is a 2% threshold for lists.

Electoral system for Municipal Administrators: no direct elections

  • Municipal administrators are elected by and from the municipal councils.

Sources: Electoral Code, 2005 (amended through 2019), articles 182, 185 and 186; Law on the organization of Municipal Administration, 2005 (amended through 2020), article 12

Quotas

Gender quotas: Legislated candidate quotas, ranking, quota of output

  • The municipal council must be composed of at least 30% women.
  • For three consecutive candidates, at least one must be a woman.
  • In the event that the composition of a municipal council does not reflect the gender diversity of the electorate, the Independent National Electoral Commission corrects the imbalances according to the method of the strongest remainder. The Independent National Electoral Commission may order the co-optation to the council of persons from an under-represented gender, provided that the persons thus co-opted do not constitute no more than one fifth of the members of the council.
  • In the event of a vacancy, the municipal councilor is replaced in priority by the candidate of the same ethnicity and gender who is in an adequate position on the list.
  • The municipal council board must have at least 30% women. In addition, at least 1/3 of the municipal administrators must be women nationwide.

Additional quotas: ethnicities (Twa, Hutu and Tutsi)

  • Each list must take into account ethnic diversity. In the event that the composition of the municipal council does not reflect ethnic diversity, the independent national electoral commission may order the co-optation to the council of persons from an under-represented ethnic group, provided that the persons thus co-opted do not constitute no more than one fifth of the members of the council.
  • The Independent National Electoral Commission co-opts a person of Twa ethnicity on the list of candidates of the political party or coalition of elected political parties containing members of the Twa ethnic group and having obtained the greatest number of votes in the event that no fate is organized to decide between the candidates.
  • In the event of a vacancy, the municipal councilor is replaced in priority by the candidate of the same ethnicity and gender who is in an adequate position on the list.
  • None of the ethnic components is represented by more than 67% of the municipal administrators at the national level.

Sources: Electoral Code, 2005 (amended through 2019), articles 182, 188, 190, 191; Law on the organization of Municipal Administration, 2005 (amended through 2020), article 12, 25, 26 and 27

Term of elections
  • Term length: 5 years
  • Last local elections: 2020
  • Next local elections: 2025
Electoral management body

Independent National Electoral Commission

National legal framework on local government
National legal framework
  • Constitution of Burundi, 2005 (amended through 2018);
  • Law on the organization of Municipal Administration, 2005 (amended through 2020);
  • Law on the modalities of the transfer of competencies from the State to the communes, 2015;
  • Electoral Code, 2005 (amended through 2019).
Constitutional provisions on local government

There are constitutional provisions that establish local government in Burundi. According to Articles 269 and 270 of the Constitution of Burundi of 2005 (amended through 2018), “The commune as well as other local collectivities of the Republic are created by organic law. The law determines the fundamental principles of their status, organization, jurisdiction, and resources, as well as the conditions in which these local collectivities are managed. The commune is a decentralized administrative entity. It is subdivided into entities defined by an organic law."

Legislative provisions on local government

Parliament is responsible for establishing the national legal framework on local government. The key piece of legislation which regulate local government is the Law on the organization of Municipal Administration of 2005 (amended through 2020). According to Articles 5, 6 and 8 of the Law on the organization of Municipal Administration of 2005, “The municipality is responsible for managing the local interests of the population under its jurisdiction. The municipality constitutes the base of the economic and social development of the population established on its territory. Its organs must constantly seek to promote community development at all levels. It is responsible in particular for the supervision of the population through sensitization, information and mobilization; concertation and consultation of the population on the life of the municipality; the administrative management of municipal salaried workers; adoption and execution of programs and budgets of the municipality.”

Sources:

1. UN Women: Data on share of women in local government as of 1 January 2023.

2. UN Women: Information on Head of State and Government as of 3 October 2023.

3. Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU): Data on share of women in the single/lower chamber of parliament as of 1 January 2023.

4. IPU and UN Women: Data on share of women in ministerial positions as of 1 January 2023.

5. Information on local government organization as of 1 January 2023.