OUAGADOUGOU, Dec 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Burkina Faso’s top court, the Constitutional Council, certified that President Roch Marc Christian Kabore had been re-elected, winning 57.74 of the vote in a ballot on Nov 22.
“The candidate Kabore, Roch Marc Christian, is elected president,” the court’s president, Kassoum Kambou, announced.
Kambou said the staging of the Nov 22 election was “normal,” despite opposition accusations of irregularities.
Kabore, 63, has vowed to step up efforts to roll back a five-year-old jihadist insurgency that has had a devastating effect on the impoverished Sahel country.
At least 1,200 people have died and around one million have fled their homes.
Because of the unrest, the election was not held across at least one-fifth of the territory, reducing the potential pool of voters from 6.49 million to 5.89 million in a population of 20 million, according to the country’s electoral board, CENI.
Kabore won over 57 percent of the vote, with the court saying it amended the figure slightly from the initial results announced by CENI after problems with voting tabulation forms submitted by 200 polling stations.
By winning more than 50 percent, Kabore avoided a runoff under the country’s two-round voting system.
The runner up was Eddie Komboigo, representing ousted president Blaise Compaore’s CDP party, who picked up over 15 percent of the vote, according to the final figures.
Third was Zephirin Diabre of the opposition UPC, with over 12 percent.
Legislative elections held the same day saw Kabore’s MPP party win 56 out of 127 seats in the National Assembly, meaning that he will have once more to forge a coalition to govern.
Former colonial power France congratulated Kabore, welcoming the “smooth running of this election, despite the security difficulties affecting certain areas of the country”. — NNN-AGENCIES
