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Burkina Faso polls: Fears over turnout, attacks
By John Eche
Fears over low voter turnout and jihadist attacks are taking the limelight ahead of the November 22 presidential and parliamentary polls in the Sahelian West African nation of Burkina Faso, The Difference reports.
According to sources, the country continues to suffer from a most debilitating insurgency that had even made it impossible for the electoral commission to fully register all eligible voters ahead of the polls.
Anticipating the constitutional challenge that could emanate from this situation, parliament recently passed a controversial law stipulating that only votes from areas where it is safe enough to conduct elections would count at the end of the day.
Incumbent President Roch-Marc Christian Kabore is the leading contender in the contest and could emerge victorious even when he has failed to keep a 2015 campaign pledge to make the country safer.
There is however concern that the polls outcome could lead to disputes of the same magnitude perhaps as that which had been witnessed in the aftermath of the parliamentary polls in Mali earlier in the year and which had led to widespread protests that were eventually to culminate in the overthrow of the Ibrahim Boubacar Keita administration.
Leader of the opposition CDP, Eddie Komboïgo has called for dialogue with the jihadists to find out ‘why exactly they are attacking us.’
President Roch-Marc Kabore, President, Burkina Faso
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