“Blaise get out!” chanted protesters riled by Compaore’s bid to change the constitution in order to extend his grip on power.
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Presidential and parliamentary elections commenced on Sunday in Burkina Faso, one year after a violent public uprising that forced President Blaise Compaore out of office.
Voters in Burkina Faso began casting ballots today for a new president and parliament, hoping to turn the page on a year of turmoil during which the west African nation’s people ousted a veteran ruler and repelled a military coup.
Mr. Kabore said that the current polling will provide the country, since its independence in 1960, with a civilian president for the first time.
“I am happy to vote since there is no outgoing president and the elections bear my hopes of a better future with the president I am going to vote for”, said Tiama Gasse, a 50-year-old trader.
Security will be tight with the authorities deploying between 20,000 and 25,000 troops to ward off the threat of a jihadist attack, following two recent assaults against police barracks on the country’s long western border with troubled Mali.
However, in September, units from the country’s Presidential Guard, led by Gen. Gilbert Diendere, stormed into a cabinet meeting and arrested Kafando, Isaac Zida, interim prime minister, and a handful of other government ministers. He came to power in 1987 after former leader Thomas Sankara was shot dead in a coup that Compaore is widely suspected of masterminding.
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Kabore heads the Movement of People for Progress (MPP), made up of disaffected allies of the former president who left the party months before Compaore stood down. Both the candidates were once seen as close associates of Compaore but later disassociated themselves. Diabre has global ties from his years at the United Nations Development Programme and Areva, a French nuclear company. The electoral commission says provisional results should be known by Monday evening.
