They say electors  were accompanied to the voting booths where officials or members of the ruling party’s youth wing pressed them to vote in favour of the constitutional change sought by the President already serving an unconstitutional third term.

Opposition leader Agathon Rwasa says the yes vote was achieved even in strongholds of his coalition because his monitors were either abducted, chased from the polling stations, jailed or threatened.

The youth wing known as Imbonerakure, which is regarded the United Nations as a militia group spreading terror among the population, played a leading role in this

Rwasa says the electoral process has been neither free nor transparent, nor independent and still less democratic.

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The group says the ICC decision gives victims hope that those responsible for grave crimes over the past two years could be held to account,

The panel of three ICC judges will investigate how President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision two years ago to run for an unconstitutional third term ignited protests in Burundi that were suppressed by his security service and the youth league of his ruling party known as the Imbonerakure.

It will look at the allegedly unchecked abuses by these groups including rape, torture and executions.

Last month Burundi became the first country officially to withdraw from the ICC.

The court still has jurisdiction over crimes committed during the 13 years that it was a member.

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At least 18 people have died in deadly clashes these past weeks, many involving the youth wing of the ruling party.

Burundian security forces have started dismantling barricades set up by protestors in the capital Bujumbura.

President Pierre Nkurunziza, who’s officially registered his candidacy for the elections on June 26, has branded the demonstrators terrorists.

They, in turn, have called his ban on protests a declaration of war and vowed to be back on the streets today.

Tens of thousands of Burundians have fled to neighbouring countries to escape the violence.

Most of them have gone to Rwanda where, like in Burundi, political instability spiralled into ethnic conflict and genocide.

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