East African Community leaders have called for the postponement of the July 15, 2015 presidential election in Burundi.

Heads of State of the East African Community (EAC) region are concerned with the political stalemate and crisis in Burundi and met for the third time in the Tanzanian commercial capital Dar es Salaam on Monday July 6, 2015. They called for the postponement of the July 15, 2015 presidential election  to July 30, 2015 and designated the Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni as mediator in the Burundian crisis, news agency reports say.

President Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi reportedly skipped the summit and preferred to be represented by the country’s Foreign Minister, Alain Aime-Nyamitwe, Daily Nation reported citing President Nkurunziza’s spokesman, Gervais Abahiro.  Mr Nkurunziza reportedly instead stayed back to lead his presidential campaign in Burundi's central Mwaro and Gitega regions ahead of the presidential election on July 15, 2015.

Host President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania who is also the current chairperson of the East African Community, “has invited the Heads of State of EAC in the capacity as the chair of the East African Community [to] discuss the standoff in Burundi,” Voice of America quoted the president’s spokesman Assah Mwambene as saying. “The situation getting worse in Burundi actually calls for more meetings than boycotting meetings of this nature,” Mwambene is further cited as saying.

The agenda of the summit was to “sit, discuss and assess the situation including getting an updated version of what is happening on the ground and how has the government of Burundi implemented or rejected the conditions that were set by the Heads of State in their first meeting before the follow up meeting a month ago,” Assah Mwambene reported said.

The crisis in Burundi are further compounded by President Pierre Nkurunziza’s  determination to have presidential election hold on July 15, 2015  despite  calls by the international community for a postponement, citing the security challenges that have forced over 100,000  people to flee the country. The crisis broke up when Nkurunziza expressed the decision to stand for re-election for a third term, a decision endorsed by the Constitutional Council but vehemently rejected and protested by the opposition.