Burkina Faso election update - many candidates from the "old political guard"

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Former minister Gilbert Noël Ouédraogo selected as presidential candidate by ADF-RDA
Friday was the deadline to register for Burkina Faso's October presidential election, and Reuters notes that many among the 22 candidates are a former prime minister or minister.

That's pretty standard in African elections. As I mentioned last week, the main candidates in Guinea's upcoming election (also in October) includes the incumbent president, two former prime ministers, and potentially a former president.

When I wrote about the Burkina Faso election earlier in the month, I cited an article on leFaso.net that said that the deadline was August 1st and there were 98 candidates. I'm not sure if that article was wrong, I misunderstood, or the deadline was extended and some of the candidates didn't qualify.

Anyway, the four top candidates mentioned by Reuters were the top four in my list of eleven:


Roch Marc Christian Kaboré was president of the CDP party, and then in January last year left the CDP to start his own opposition party, the People's Movement for Progress. "Amongst the favorites is former prime minister Roch Marc Kabore, a long-time stalwart of Compaore's regime who split away last year to found the opposition People's Movement for Progress (MPP). Kabore enjoys support among Burkina's business community and traditional leaders."
  1. Roch Marc Christian Kaboré was president of the CDP party, and then in January last year left the CDP to start his own opposition party, the People's Movement for Progress. Reuters says: "Amongst the favorites is former prime minister Roch Marc Kabore, a long-time stalwart of Compaore's regime who split away last year to found the opposition People's Movement for Progress (MPP).
  2. Zéphirin Diabré is the candidate for the CDP's main opposition party, the Union for Progress and Change (UPC). UPC won 19 (of 127) seats in the 2012 elections, positioning it as the 3rd largest party after CDP and its ally, ADF-RDA. Reuters says: "Another leading candidate is Zephirin Diabre, a former finance minister under Compaore, who worked for French nuclear group Areva before founding his Union for Progress and Change (UPC) party in 2010."
  3. Djibril Bassolé is the candidate for a new party, New Alliance of Faso (NAFA) formed earlier this year by former supporters of Compaore. Bassolé was Compaore's foreign minister (2007-2008, 2011-2014) and chief diplomat. Bassolé's supporters thought he would succeed Campaore. Reuters says: "Former foreign minister Djibrill Bassole will also represent a coalition of opposition groups."
  4. Eddie Komboigo was selected as the candidate for Compaore's Congress for Democracy and Progress (CDP). Reuters says: "Compaore's former ruling party, the Congress for Democracy and Progress (CDP), named a little-known businessman and former member of parliament, Eddie Komboigo, as its presidential candidate in July."
As far as I know, the other candidates I wrote about are still in the race. When I wrote about the election earlier this month, the ADF-RDA, who supported former president Compaore (CDP) in the 2005 and 2010 elections had not yet selected a candidate. They made their selection two weeks ago, a former minister:
  • Gilbert Noël Ouédraogo is the candidate for Alliance for Democracy and Federation-African Development Rally (ADF-RDA) is the second largest party in the legislature and supported Compaore in the 2005 and 2010 presidential elections. Ouédraogo held ministerial posts under Compaore from 2000-2002 and 2006-13. His father, Gérard Kango Ouédraogo, was Prime Minister of Burkina Faso (then Upper Volta) from 1971-74. I'm not sure if they are related to Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo, who was president from 1981-82. Ouédraogo seems to be a popular name.

UPDATE (August 28): Here is a list of the 22 presidential contenders, with brief biological sketches: http://africanelections.blogspot.com/2015/08/burkina-faso-meet-22-presidential.html

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