A/HRC/17/50 II. General situation of the country A. Political situation 1. The communal, presidential, legislative, senatorial and district elections 6. The communal, presidential, legislative, senatorial and district elections were held respectively on 24 May, 28 June, 23 July, 28 July and 7 September 2010. 7. Twenty-four political parties and five independent candidates took part in the communal elections. Following those elections, CNDD-FDD obtained 64 per cent of the vote, the Forces nationales de libération (FNL) 14 per cent, the Union pour le progress national (UPRONA) 6 per cent, Sahwanya-Front pour la démocratie au Burundi (FRODEBU) 5 per cent, the Mouvement pour la solidarité et la démocratie (MSD) 4 per cent and the Union pour la démocratie et le développement-Zigamibanga (UPDZigamibanga) 2 per cent of the vote. The 18 other political parties and independent candidates shared the remaining votes, representing about 5 per cent of the total. 8. The very day that the results were announced, they were disputed by a group of 12 opposition political parties, including FNL, Sahwana-FRODEBU, CNDD, MSD and UPD, which alleged that there had been massive fraud and irregularities. Those opposition parties complained of rigging through ballot box stuffing by the CNDD-FDD ruling party. The group also questioned the neutrality of the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) and called for a new ballot. Initially, the parties involved refused to refer the matter to the competent judicial organs; subsequently, they lodged appeals with the independent provincial electoral commission, in accordance with electoral law. However, CENI rejected the appeals on the grounds that the information provided by the appellants had not been substantiated. 9. For their part, the national and international observers in place in the country before and during the electoral process stated that the elections had been conducted in accordance with international standards and that the irregularities and shortcomings noted in their organization were not such as to call into question their validity. 10. On 1 June 2010, FNL, Sahwana-FRODEBU, CNDD, MSD and UPD-Zigamibanga, followed on 4 June by UPRONA, withdrew their respective candidates from the presidential elections. Six other opposition parties subsequently joined up with the aforementioned parties and the 12 parties together thus formed a political coalition known officially as the "Alliance des démocrates pour le changement au Burundi" (ADC-Ikibiri). This coalition, accusing the international community of being biased in favour of CNDDFDD in that it had recognized the results of the communal elections, asked its elected councillors not to serve in the communal councils. 11. Despite the withdrawal of these opposition parties, the presidential elections took place on 28 June. The outgoing President, Pierre Nikurunziza, who was the only candidate, was re-elected with 91 per cent of the vote, notwithstanding the opposition's call to boycott the election. CENI announced a voter turnout of 76 per cent, as against 91 per cent in the communal elections. International observers noted that some technical improvements had been made in the arrangements for the presidential election, particularly in the counting of votes. Nevertheless, the independent expert received reports that several acts of violence had been committed before and after the campaign and that meetings organized by opposition parties had been banned. In addition, he heard numerous allegations that members of the opposition political parties had been arrested and detained. 12. Despite the decision taken by the ADC-Ikibiri coalition to boycott the legislative elections, they took place on the scheduled date, 23 July 2010, with the participation of GE.11-13751 (EXT) 5