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Burundi president says third term will be last - spokesman

A protester holds a placard as they demonstrate against the ruling CNDD-FDD party's decision to allow Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza to run for a third five-year term in office, in Bujumbura, May 4, 2015. REUTERS/Jean Pierre Aime Harerimana

BUJUMBURA (Reuters) - Burundi's president told African ministers that, if elected for a third term in June, it would be his last and he would not run for office again after that, his spokesman said on Wednesday. President Pierre Nkurunziza's decision to run for a third term has sparked protests in the past week. Protesters say the constitution limits the president to two terms. The constitutional court ruled his first term did not count because he was picked by lawmakers not elected by a vote. "He told them (the ministers) that if re-elected he would not seek another term," presidential spokesman Gervais Abayeho said, after the president met a mission by east African foreign ministers to discuss the political crisis. (Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Susan Fenton)