After Roller-Coaster Year, Burkina Votes For New President

"We will ensure that true democracy is consolidated in Burkina Faso," interim leader Michel Kafando said ©Filippo Monteforte (AFP)

After a rocky year that saw Burkina's people rise up to oust a longtime leader and then repel a military coup, the West African nation on Sunday elects a new president in a vote hailed as a fresh start for the country. "We will ensure that true democracy is consolidated in Burkina Faso," interim leader Michel Kafando said last month as the nation of 20 million people geared up to elect a new leader for the first time in almost three decades.

Security will be tight with the authorities deploying between 20,000 and 25,000 troops to ward off the threat of a jihadist attack, following two recent assaults against police barracks on the country's long western border with troubled Mali.

"There is no such thing as a zero security risk," junior minister for security Alain Zagre told AFP, saying "patrols will be practically multiplied by three" and all of the country's security forces mobilized during the vote.

Little more than a year ago, in October 2014, then ruler Blaise Compaoré fled the country after 27 years at the helm after being toppled by a popular uprising that lasted less than 48 hours.

A handsome former army officer known as "Beau Blaise", Compaoré took power by force in 1987.

His ouster offered a rare moment of people-power in sub-Saharan Africa, where military coups are more often the flavour of the day.

"Blaise get out!" protesters chanted at the time, riled by Compaoré's attempt to change the constitution in a bid to extend his grip on power.

- Coup foiled -

Now exiled in neighbouring Côte d'Ivoire, Compaoré himself took office when revolutionary former comrade-in-arms Thomas Sankara -- a legendary African leader who came to be known as "Che Sankara" -- was gunned down in a coup Compaoré is now widely believed to have orchestrated.

Sankara put the accent on schools and health and women's rights in a country that is poor even by African standards. It was under Sankara that it began to host Africa's biggest film festival, FESPACO.

In September this year, weeks before a presidential vote originally scheduled for October, elite army leaders close to Compaoré made a bid to seize power in a putsch.

Once again angry people took to the streets, foiling the military coup. Its leaders were thrown behind bars and the presidential and general elections delayed to November 29.

A total of 14 candidates are running for president, a five-year mandate now limited to two terms in office under recent legislation enacted to entrench the two-term rule in the constitution.

To bolster the legitimacy of the next head of state, members of the interim government have been banned from standing as have all those who backed Compaoré's bid for a third term, as well as members of his Congress for Democracy and Progress party (CDP).

The pro-Compaoré CDP is still fielding candidates in the parliamentary elections and is expected to do well in parts of the country traditionally behind "Beau Blaise".

In the race for the presidency, seven of the 14 contenders were once close to Compaoré, including the two favourites for the job -- Roch Marc Christian Kabore and Zephirin Diabre.

Kabore worked side-by-side with Compaoré for 26 years -- serving as premier, parliament speaker and CDP party chief -- before falling out of favour and quitting the ruling party months before the collapse of the regime.

Diabre, an economist, opted for an international career but also served at home as minister of economy and finance. He at one point joined the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with support from Compaoré.

He later became a vocal opponent of Compaoré and was particularly active in rousing support for the street protests that toppled the former leader.