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Burkina Faso President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, who is seeking a second term, beat his opponents on Wednesday, according to the partial results of the November 22 presidential elections announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (Céni).
According to the provisional results of 196 communes (out of 368) in Céni, Mr. Kaboré obtained 58.14% of the votes, against 14.25% of the opposition leader, Zephirin Diabré and 13.62% of Eddie Komboïgo , president of the former ruling party.
The Céni has one week to announce the results.
President Kaboré, often accused of “inaction” in the face of jihadist attacks, aspires, as in 2015, to a victory in the first round of these elections considered the most open in the history of Burkina Faso, a poor country in West Africa. a country that has experienced multiple coups since its independence.
A victory in the first round would allow him to avoid a second round against a candidate supported by all the opposition.
Presidential and legislative elections were held on Sunday under high security tension, with Burkina Faso going through 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 on Monday that the double vote was “riddled with fraud” and threatened “not to accept results tainted with irregularities. It had already stated, on the eve of the elections, that a” massive fraud “was being prepared.
Among the complaints cited by the opposition are the non-opening or late opening of the polling stations, the unsafe transportation of the ballot boxes, the lack of materials or personnel, and the arbitrary modification of the mapping of the polling stations.
The parties of the presidential majority requested this Tuesday “respect for the results” of the elections, considering that “the deficiencies observed, although regrettable, do not have a magnitude that could significantly impact the result of the elections.
Finally, an opposition demonstration was canceled, initially scheduled for Wednesday morning in front of the center for the collection and consolidation of results.
A tripartite mission from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the United Nations (UN) and the African Union (AU), present in Burkina to observe the vote, met with members of the opposition and the majority to “preventive diplomacy,” according to a member of the mission.
The elections could not be held in at least a fifth of the territory, depriving between 300,000 and 350,000 people of the vote, according to the electoral commission.
