Burkina Faso votes to choose first new leader in decades

Its leaders were thrown behind bars and the presidential and general elections were re-scheduled. The pro-Compaore CDP is still fielding candidates in the parliamentary elections and is expected to do well in parts of the country traditionally behind “Beau Blaise”.

“I am happy to vote since there is no outgoing president and the elections bear my hopes of a better future with the president I am going to vote for”, said Tiama Gasse, a 50-year-old trader.

“It is a victory for the youth that has expressed its will for change and for real democracy”, he said.

“We think it is certainly a militant group that identified the Inata gold mine and chose to take action to get hold of funds”, Zagre said. Kabore, 58, had served as prime minister and president of the National Assembly under Compaore. And Zephirin Diabre was minister of finance in the 1990’s before stepping down to start an opposition party.

Kabore’s Movement of People for Progress (MPP) is largely made up of disaffected allies of Compaore, who had left the party months before he resigned.

There were problems as some stations opened late or were short of voting papers and ballot boxes, but many people said they were glad just to have the chance to choose their leader.

There, the ten polling stations were stormed by the voters, as shown by the long queues of voters waiting outside the offices.

Campaigning in the run-up to the elections was incident-free since the coup. Burkina Faso has set up checkpoints at the entrances to cities and plans to close its borders for Sunday’s vote.

Hundreds of voters are lining up after morning prayers to vote in Burkina Faso’s first presidential and legislative elections since a popular uprising toppled the West Africa nation’s longtime leader.

This backdrop of political drama forced the country to reschedule its elections, which had originally been planned for October.

The West African nation has been mostly ruled by leaders that arrived to power through coups since the country gained its independence from France in 1960. “I want the candidate I voted for to take care of us”, said 39-year-old Omar Tiemtore.

OUAGADOUGOU – Voters in Burkina Faso cast ballots on Sunday for a new president and parliament, hoping to turn the page on a year of turmoil during which the country’s people ousted a veteran ruler and repelled a military coup.