General
Kabore re-elected Burkina Faso’s president
Burkina Faso President Roch Kabore has won re-election by a comfortable margin, preliminary results showed on Thursday, after an election marred by insecurity that prevented swathes of the West African country from voting.
Some analysts had expected a closer contest on Sunday between Kabore, who was elected in 2015, and his main rivals, who argued he had failed to contain Islamist and ethnic violence that forced 1 million people to flee their homes during his first term.
The results read out by the election commission showed Kabore won 57.87% of the vote. He needed over 50% to avoid a second round.
His two closest rivals, Zephirin Diabre and Eddie Komboigo, got 12.46% and 15.48%, respectively.
Kabore’s opponents have raised concerns about the validity of the vote count. But the electoral commission has dismissed those and an international observer mission gave the election a mostly clean bill of health.
The presidential and legislative elections took place on Sunday under high security tension, with Burkina Faso experiencing its darkest hours since independence, undermined by attacks by jihadist groups that have killed at least 1,200 people in five years.
The Burkinabe opposition said Monday that the double voting was “riddled with fraud” and threatened to “not accept results tainted by irregularities. It had already stated, on the eve of the election, that a “massive fraud” was in preparation.
Among the grievances cited by the opposition were the non-opening or late opening of polling stations, the unsecured transportation of ballot boxes, the lack of materials or personnel, and the arbitrary modification of the mapping of polling stations.
The parties of the presidential majority called Tuesday for “respect for the results” of the election, considering that “the shortcomings noted, although regrettable, are not of a magnitude likely to significantly impact the outcome of the election”.
An opposition demonstration, initially scheduled for Wednesday morning in front of the center for the compilation and consolidation of results, was finally cancelled.
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