Extremist threat closes some polls
OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — Fears of attacks by extremists prevented voting in many parts of Burkina Faso on Sunday, as the country went to the polls for presidential and legislative elections marred by ongoing violence linked to al Qaeda and the Islamic State group.
Election and local government officials said certain polling stations in the Center North, Sahel and East regions that were expected to open had not, and those that did had to close early because of the fear of attacks.
Two polling stations in the capital, Ouagadougou, also didn’t open, according to Halidou Ouedraogo, president of Codel, an organization monitoring the elections.
Some towns weren’t able to conduct voting at all, including Bartiebougou and Tin Akoff, where 14 soldiers were killed in an ambush by Islamic State earlier this month, said Newton Ahmed Barry, president of the National Independent
Electoral Commission.
“The reasons are mainly security and also it’s impossible to find someone to manage the polling stations,” Barry said. Other poll stations remained closed because people were threatened and told that if they voted and put ink on their fingers, they can “say goodbye to their finger,” he said.
While the elections that did take place were for the most part peaceful, observers worry what might happen after the election given that so many people were prevented from voting.
This election is a major test for the nation’s young democracy in the face of rising extremist attacks.
President Roch Marc Christian Kabore is vying for another five years against 12 other candidates. Kabore is expected to win, but the opposition hopes to split the vote, depriving him of the 51% support needed for an outright victory in the first round. Kabore’s critics then hope to form a coalition behind the strongest opposition candidate for the second round.
Kabore urged citizens to vote as he cast his ballot.
“It’s about the development of Burkina Faso, it’s about peace in our country, so it’s important that each Burkinabe vote,” he said.
Opposition candidates accused the ruling party of fraud, including bribing people. The parties also accused the National Independent Electoral Commission of making changes to the electoral map, said Zephirin Diabre, a leading candidate from the Progress and Change Party.
After voting today in Ouagadougou, he told the media that he will congratulate whoever the winner is, but “won’t accept results that are stained with fraud and irregularities.”
Diabre is one of the main challengers, together with Eddie Komboigo, head of the Congress for Democracy and Progress, the party of former President Blaise Compaore, who was ousted by a popular uprising in 2014.