Burkina Faso INEC says 'nothing prevents' presidential and legislative elections in November

01 Mai 2020

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, May 1 (Infosplusgabon) - The chairman of the Burkina Faso Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Newton Ahmed Barry, said on Thursday that nothing prevents the holding of the presidential and legislative elections on 22 November despite the interruption of the electoral process due to the coronavirus disease.

"Technically and legally, as I speak, there is nothing to prevent the elections from being held on November 22," said Barry during a meeting with the leader of the opposition Zéphirin Diabré.

"The INEC worked to be operational and to date, nothing, apart from the legal provisions (the enrollment was suspended by a decree of the Prime Minister) … It is therefore necessary to lift the suspension and the INEC is getting under way," said Barry, adding that "everything we could do on our side has been done".

On the resumption of the recruitment operations, opposition leader Diabré, declared: "It appears that some legal obstacles must be removed, in particular a decree by the government to authorise the operation since it had been suspended."

"We have had information about the practical arrangements that will be implemented to allow this enrollment to be a special or less dangerous for the transmission of the virus. On this point, we are satisfied," said Diabré.

Outgoing President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré and Kadré Désiré Ouédraogo, a former Prime Minister of ex-President Blaise Compaoré, have declared their intention to contest the presidential election.

Others are Gilbert Noël Ouédraogo of the Alliance for Democracy and the Federation/African Democratic Rally (ADF/RDA) and Tahirou Barry, former Minister of Culture.

Several political parties, notably the opposition Union for Progress and Change (UPC), and the Congress for Democracy and Progress (CDP), the party of ex-president Compaoré, have not yet nominated their candidates.

These elections will take place in a context marked by terrorism in several parts and candidates will find it difficult to campaign across the country.

FIN/ INFOSPLUSGABON/DSX/GABON2020

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