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Ouagadougou (AFP)
Burkina Faso President Roch Marc Christian Kabore gained a notable lead Wednesday in the results announced by more than half of the country’s voting districts after the weekend’s elections.
Kabore, who is running for a second term at the helm of the troubled state of Sahel, has 58.14 percent of the vote, according to the current tally conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI).
Opposition leader Zephirin Diabre has 14.25 percent while Eddie Komboigo, who heads a former ruling party, has 13.62 percent, he said.
The figures come from the results of 196 of the 368 districts, embassies or consulates where the votes were cast for Sunday’s elections.
Kabore, 63, is seeking an absolute majority from voting day to avoid a runoff in which he would oppose a single candidate backed by a united opposition.
He was targeted for his response to a five-year jihadist campaign that came from Mali, killing at least 1,200 and forcing around a million people to flee their homes.
Sunday’s elections were for Burkina’s legislature as well as for its presidency, where executive power is concentrated in the former French colony.
Opposition parties say the vote was marked by fraud and incorrect procedures. On Monday they threatened to reject “results tainted by irregularities”.
Their complaints include polling stations not opening or opening late, insecure ballot management, and arbitrary changes to voting areas.
Due to the unrest, the elections were not held in at least one fifth of the territory, denying the right to vote to 350,000 people, according to data from the CENI.
Parties supporting Kabore on Tuesday said the problems encountered on Sunday affected “all competing candidates and political parties” in a similar way.
The problems were not such as to have a major impact on the result, they said, urging all parties to respect the result.
An opposition protest was supposed to take place early Wednesday outside the vote tabulation center, but was canceled.
A group of joint observers was dispatched by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the United Nations and the African Union (AU).
He met with representatives of the government and the opposition in what one of the members of the mission called “preventive diplomacy”.
© 2020 AFP
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