Council for a Community of Democracies

The President of Burkina Faso Seeks an Unconstitutional Fourth Term
August 30, 2010
By: Chinyelu Odunze

After three terms as president of Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaore’s is likely to be re-elected to an unconstitutional fourth term.

Compaore's second five-year term (and third term overall) ends late this year. A 2010 constitutional amendment currently under consideration would enable Mr. Compaore to run for re-election. According to the AFP, Mr. Campaore's Congress for Democracy and Progress (CDP) Party has been campaigning to abolish term limits. Disregarding the limits set forth in Burkina Faso's constitution, Campaore’s party has nominated him as their presidential candidate for a fourth term.

Two opposition candidates have already put their names forward- Benewende Sankara, the leader of the main opposition Union for the Renaissance/Sankarist Party, and Norbert Michel Tiendrebeogo of the Social Forces Front (FFS). In the 2005 poll, according to the AFP, Sankara came second with 4.88 percent of the vote while Tiendrebeogo was seventh with 1.61 percent.

Mr. Compaore became the de facto leader after the government was overthrown in 1987 and the then president, Thomas Sanakara, was killed. Compaore was officially elected the president of Burkina Faso in 1991. At the time, the presidency was restricted to two seven- year terms. According to Freedom House, the assassination of a prominent journalist and one of Compaore’s strongest critics in 1998 prompted constitutional reform by opposition parties. Despite that, he was re-elected in 1998, but the poll was boycotted by the main opposition parties.

In the period between 2000 and 2002, the constitution was amended to limit the presidency to two five-year terms, an independent electoral commission was created, and judicial reforms clarified the powers of the various appellate courts. In 2005, he was re-elected to a third term despite the term amendment, arguing that the constitutional term limits did not apply retroactively.

BBC claims that President Blaise Compaore was re-elected president for a third term with 80% of the vote in 2005. According to the US Department of State, generally the 2005 elections were considered to be free, but not fair since the incumbents had control of both the media and the resources.