![]() “The Burkinabe people rose to the challenge of holding these historic elections in a calmer atmosphere.” “We’re smiling broadly, we’re sighing with relief,” said Halidou Ouedraogo, chairman of CODEL, the civil society platform monitoring the election. Observers said turnout in the polls, where voters also elected members of a new parliament, was certainly higher than during elections during the Compaore era. Turnout was strong in all of the country’s 45 provinces, said head of the electoral commission CENI, Barthelemy Kere, praising the “patience, tolerance and understanding” of the 5.5 million-strong electorate. It was “the first fully democratic, transparent” election since 1978, when the former French colony was still known as Upper Volta, Kafando said. Michel Kafando, who has presided over the transitional regime put in place after Compaore fled, praised the vote as “a victory… for the Burkinabe people”. The 58-year-old managed to garner a broad coalition of support from Campore supporters and opponents, as well as from cities and rural areas. “We have had a total rupture with the old system,” Kabore said Sunday, pledging to “bring real change to the country”.įor over a decade he led the ruling Congress for Democracy and Progress (CDP) party and was seen as Compaore’s likely heir, but fell out with the strongman in 2012 and last year formed his own opposition party. Kabore, a former banker seen as a consensus figure by some and an opportunist by others, has pledged to build “a new Burkina Faso” by fighting youth unemployment, improving education and modernising the health system. People in Burkina, a poor nation of 18 million people with a history of coups, are hoping the election will usher in a long era of peaceful democracy. The country was once again plunged into turmoil in September when the elite presidential guard loyal to the former strongman tried to seize power, forcing the elections to be delayed.įinally held on November 29, the poll went off largely without incident, though some ballot stations were forced to stay open later than scheduled after long queues formed outside. The poll caps more than a year of upheaval in the country after Compaore was ousted in October 2014 by a popular uprising, after trying to change the constitution to extend his 27-year rule. The new president also expressed his “warm congratulations” to the election authorities that organised the poll, the first time in almost three decades Burkina has voted in a new leader. Kabore’s main rival Zephirin Diabre, who took 29.65% of votes, congratulated the former premier just before the results were released, according to an AFP journalist at the scene. ![]() Together we must serve the country,” he told a crowd of several thousand supporters outside his party headquarters, pledging his “determination to open up the opportunities for a better tomorrow”. Kabore, who governed under former strongman Blaise Compaore before turning his back on the old regime, won the vote in the first round with 53.49% of ballots, the electoral commission said late Monday, November 30. OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso – Roch Marc Christian Kabore has won Burkina Faso’s presidential election, official results showed, after a year of turmoil that saw the west African country’s former leader deposed and the military try to seize power.
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