BUJUMBURA, Aug. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- Burundi is going to hold its presidential elections on Friday, as part of a peace process to end years of ethnic conflicts in the central African nation.

    The senate and the national assembly are to elect the new president by a two-thirds majority.

    Pierre Nkurunziza, chairman of the predominantly Hutu Forces for the Defense of Democracy (FDD) party in Burundi stands as the only candidate for Friday's presidential election.

    The FDD has won a commanding 58 percent of the July 4 vote for national assembly seats, and on July 29, it secured 30 out of the 34 seats up for election in the Senate, virtually guaranteeing presidency for Nkurunziza.

    The ruling party FRODEBU has capitulated, saying it will not waste its time fielding a presidential candidate.

    The FDD, the former most significant Hutu rebel group active in the Burundi civil war, is now a major political party in Burundi. It is so strong even some Tutsis have joined it.

    Since its independence from Belgium in 1962, Burundi has been afflicted with conflicts and fighting of ethnic groups, political rebels, armed gangs, and various government forces.

    Tutsis, just 14 percent of Burundi's population of 7 million, had long dominated politics through their control of the military and government bureaucracies.

    The FDD led a 10-year Hutu insurgency against the Tutsi government after the 1993 assassination of the country's first democratically elected Hutu president, Melchior Ndadaye.

    Outgoing President Domitien Ndayizeye assumed power on April 30,2003, as part of the transitional government established by the 2000 Arusha Accord which envisaged a power-sharing arrangement between Hutus and Tutsis

    The swearing-in of the new president slated for August 26, together with final district elections in September will end Burundi's transitional period and is expected to usher in stability for this tiny central African country. Enditem