Religious leaders and organisations have greatly fuelled homophobia in Burundi. These are the findings of a report titled Religion and homophobia, released recently by the Movement for Individual Freedoms (MOLI), a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) organisation in Burundi.

The first in a series of elections has brought simmering discontent with Burundi's electoral commission to the boil. Just over a week after the May 24 communal elections, five opposition presidential candidates have demanded the resignation of members of the National Electoral Commission and announced that they will boycott the presidential poll scheduled for June 28.

Five opposition candidates have withdrawn from presidential polls in Burundi due to take place on 28 June. They include the former rebel leader Agathon Rwasa, who was widely thought to be the key challenger to the current President Pierre Nkurunziza. All had called for the resignation of Burundi's electoral commission following local polls last month, which they say were fraudulent.

Burundi's opposition have demanded a re-run of local polls it said were rigged by the regime while the country's top former rebel threatened a boycott of crucial upcoming elections. The allegation of fraud in Monday's local council polls -- the first phase of a months-long electoral marathon -- was likely to heighten fears over the stability of the small war-scarred central African nation.

Burundi's district elections, seen as a test of the tiny African country's stability ahead of presidential elections in June, met international standards, European observers said on Thursday. Monday's elections were the first of a series of polls in which the coffee-producer will also vote for representatives to parliament and its next president. District polls are often an indicator of how the rest of the vote will go.