Burundi awaits results of local and parliamentary elections

Burundians were wait to hear the results of Thursday's local and parliamentary elections expected to give the ruling party a big majority.

Provisional results are to be announced between June 10 and 11, and final results on June 20.

More than six million voters were called to elect a new national assembly whose membership has reduced from 123 to 103 seats.

They also voted for city mayors and councillors. Long queues formed at many polling stations across the country.

The main opposition National Council for Liberty (CNL) was barred from the election on a technicality.

President Evariste Ndayishimiye's CNDD-FDD party has ruled the central African country since 2005, when a peace deal ended a long civil war.

The vote comes during a deepening socio-economic crisis marked by fuel shortages, soaring inflation, and a scarcity of goods such as sugar and foreign currency shortages.

On Thursday, Burundi appeared on the list of countries whose nationals would face stricter restrictions on traveling to the US.