BUJUMBURA

Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza said Wednesday that elections will be the only way to end the current political crisis in the East African country.

"I'm confident that successful elections will be way-out of the current crisis in Burundi," Nkurunziza said in a televised speech.

He called on officials to rally voters "to turn out heavily in the elections."

Earlier Wednesday, Nkurunziza postponed legislative and municipal elections – which had been scheduled for May 25 – to June 5.

Burundi has been rocked by protests since late April, when the ruling National Council for the Defense of Democracy named Nkurunziza – in power since 2005 – as its candidate for June presidential polls.

The situation took a turn for the worse last week when a group of army generals staged a failed coup attempt against Nkurunziza while he was attending a regional summit in Tanzania.

The opposition says Nkurunziza does not have the right to seek a third term in office, citing Burundi's constitution, which limits the number of terms a president can serve to two.

Burundi's Constitutional Court, however, has ruled that a third-term bid by Nkurunziza would not violate the national charter.

The court ruled that, since he was elected in 2005 by parliament and not by popular vote, Nkurunziza's first stint in office should not be counted as a presidential term per se.