Ouagadougou (AP) - President Blaise Compaore, who has ruled this West African country for nearly two decades, easily won a third term as Burkina Faso's leader, according to provisional results released Friday.
| Wow! I've been sitting on the edge of my seat for weeks, wondering how the election would turn out... |
Compaore, a former army captain who rose to power through a bloody 1987 coup, captured 80 percent of the vote Sunday. His closest rival took only 5 percent of the 2.3 million votes cast, results showed. The electoral court must still certify the results after ruling on any changes to the provisional tally within the next two days, the electoral commission said. The opposition had argued that Compaore should not have been allowed to run for a third consecutive term because new election laws limit presidents to just one term in office. But the high court ruled the new law went into effect in 2000, after Compaore's last victory, and so it did not apply to him. The opposition failed to rally around a single candidate, and Compaore faced 11 contenders for what is now a five-year presidential term.
| I have an abiding suspicion of Burkina Faso. I want to know how it got there. What did they do with Upper Volta? Where did they put it? Dahomey's gone, too. Which African nation is going to disappear next, to be replaced by someplace nobody's ever heard of? This madness must be stopped! |
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