Burundi presidential election, 1993

Burundi?s first multiparty presidential election since independence in 1962 was held on 1 June 1993. The poll ended 27 years of alternating military and single party rule in the country. This period was marked by sporadic, but deadly violence between the ethnic Tutsi minority (which controlled the government and army) and the Hutu majority.

Candidates

Three candidates contested the election.

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• Pierre Buyoya - Incumbent president who seized power in a 1987 military coup. A Tutsi from Bururi province, he was the ruling UPRONA (Union for National Progress) party's presidential candidate. He ran on a platform of national unity. Two predominately Tutsi parties, the Rally for Democracy and Economic and Social Development (RADDES) and the Social Democratic Party (PSD), supported Buyoya's candidacy.
• Melchior Ndadaye - Leader and candidate of the Front for Democracy in Burundi (FRODEBU), a predominately Hutu party founded in 1986 and officially registered in 1992. Ndadaye's candidacy was supported by three other mainly Hutu parties - Rally for the People of Burundi (RPB), People's Party (PP), and the Liberal Party (PL).
• Pierre-Claver Sendegeya - Ethnic Hutu and candidate of the monarchist People's Reconciliation Party (PRP).