Burundi polls

Burundi's voters went to the polls yesterday hoping to end years of murderous tribal rivalry and military rule, Reuter reports from Bujumbura. No violence was reported as balloting in the first multi-party election in the former Belgian colony got under way.

The incumbent President, Pierre Buyoya, who, like all Burundi's presidents since independence, took power in a military coup, is expected to win. He is opposed by Melchior Ndadaye, a banker who leads the Burundi Democracy Front, and Pierre-Claver Sendegeya of the monarchist Peoples' Reconciliation Party.