Burundi parlt approves second VP despite criticism

BUJUMBURA, Sep 8 (Reuters) Burundi's parliament approved a new second vice president, sparking claims from opposition legislators that the endorsement was illegal.

The national assembly and senate approved the appointment of Marine Barampama to the post three days after her predecessor Alice Nzomukunda quit blaming graft and human rights abuses for derailing progress towards peace in the central African country.

However, lawmakers from three opposition parties boycotted the late night parliamentary session yesterday, saying the approval was a ''non-event'' and citing a lack of quorum for the vote.

The dissent is another blow to President Pierre Nkurunziza's fledgling government, which is grappling with Western criticism of its handling of an alleged coup plot and increased scrutiny over its human rights record.

The coup plot led to the arrests of several suspects, including former president Domitien Ndayizeye, heightening tensions in the mountainous country of 7 million people.

Catherine Mabobori, a spokeswoman for the main Tutsi UPRONA party, said opposition lawmakers had asked for several conditions to be met before the vote, including the release of political figures detained over the coup plot and a debate on the reasons behind Nzomukunda's resignation.

''All this was not done. For us, the endorsement of the new second vice president is illegal and meaningless,'' she said.

Mabobori said out of the 78 legislators required to be present for a session in the lower house of parliament, only 65 -- including 64 from the ruling CNDD-FDD party -- attended.

A ruling party lawmaker, who declined to be named, denied anything was amiss in the approval Barampama, who becomes the second-ranking government official from the CNDD-FDD.

Politicians said Nkurunziza had handpicked Barampama, a senior finance ministry official, for the job.

But critics say she was appointed because of her links to the ruling party's powerful chairman Hussein Radjabu, who was publicly criticised by Nzomukunda earlier this week.

''Everything was done in violation of the law. The ruling party and its chairman ignore all principles of democracy,'' said Leonce Ngendakumana, chairman of the opposition Frodebu party.

Ruling party officials were not immediately available to comment on these accusations.

An estimated 300,000 people were killed in Burundi's civil war which started in 1993 between members of the Tutsi minority -- which had dominated the military and politics since independence from Belgium in 1962 -- and the Hutu majority.

REUTERS MS BS1501