Burundi holds crucial legislative, polls

More than 3.8 million Burundian citizens on Monday went to polls to elect lawmakers and community councillors amid a tense climate after two months of protests sparked by President Pierre Nkurunziza's bid for a third term.

Polls were expected to open at 6.00 a.m. and close at 04.00 p.m., but in the Burundian capital Bujumbura, polls opened late due to insecurity that prevailed on Sunday night, Xinhua reported.

"I came here to exercise my right as a citizen. That's why I have voted because I need new faces in the parliament and in the local administration," said Jean Pierre Bizoza, a voter met in Kinama neighbourhood.

The voting operation took place throughout the east African nation without major incidents.

A grenade was, however, blasted near a polling station by an unidentified person at Kibago in the Burundian southern province of Makamba, disrupting the voting operation.

Citizens, however, returned a few minutes later and the voting operation resumed.

During Monday's polls, at least 100 lawmakers were expected to be elected from the country's 18 provinces while 1,785 'communal councilors' would be elected from the country's 119 communes.

Burundi has been in turmoil since April, when Nkurunziza announced a third term, triggering weeks of protests, and an abortive military coup last month.

Nkurunziza's opponents say his decision to stand again violates the constitution as well as a peace deal that ended a civil war in 2005.

Nkurunziza has cited a constitutional court ruling saying he can run again, although the court's vice president, another of those who have fled, said he and others had been pressured to rule in favour of Nkurunziza.

Dozens, including an opposition leader, have been killed in months of unrest, and the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, says 127,000 have fled the country.

The opposition previously announced the boycott of the polls.