According to cheeroutdoor, Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa with a population of around 19 million people. It has a market-based economy that is heavily dependent on agriculture and mining, with cotton as its major export. The agricultural sector accounts for 32% of the GDP and employs 80% of the workforce. The main crops grown are sorghum, millet, corn, rice, cotton, peanuts, beans and vegetables. Livestock raising is also an important part of the economy. Mining of gold and other minerals is another important source of income for the country. Burkina Faso has limited natural resources such as oil and gas reserves but it does have some deposits of iron ore and manganese which are being developed to increase exports. In terms of industry, Burkina Faso has a small industrial sector which produces food products, textiles and leather goods for export to neighboring countries such as Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. The service sector accounts for about 15% of the GDP with tourism being an important contributor to this sector. Despite strong economic growth in recent years, Burkina Faso remains one of the poorest countries in Africa due to its lack of infrastructure and limited access to credit markets. This has resulted in high levels of poverty with nearly 40% living below the poverty line according to World Bank estimates. The government is working hard to improve infrastructure through investment in roads and power plants but much more needs to be done if Burkina Faso is going to become an upper middle-income country by 2030 as per its stated goal.
2014 Exit Comparator
In June 2014, President Compaore’s party CDP called on him to organize a referendum to amend the constitution so that he could stand for presidential election in 2015. Otherwise, he would not be able to stand for re-election. On October 30, the National Assembly was convened to discuss a constitutional addition that would have allowed the president to stand for re-election. The opposition reacted strongly to this, storming the Ouagadougou parliament building, setting fire to various places in the building and looting offices. Opposition spokesman Pargui Emile Paré of the People’s Movement for Socialism/Federal Party described the protests as “Burkina Faso’s Black Spring.”
According to COUNTRYAAH, Compaoré responded to the uprising by dropping the proposed constitutional amendments, dissolving parliament and declaring the country in a state of emergency. At the same time, he offered to work with the opposition to resolve the crisis. But later, the commander-in-chief of the military, General Honore Traore, announced that the army would set up a transitional government after “consultation with all parties” and that parliament was dissolved. He foresaw a “return to constitutional states” within a year. He did not make it clear what role – if any – he had intended for Compaoré during the transitional period. Compaoré himself declared that he was ready to leave the presidential post at the end of the transitional period. But on October 31, Compaoré announced that he had left the presidential post and that the country was now in a “power vacuum.” He called for free and transparent elections within 90 days. Compaoré himself went into exile in Cotê Ivoire with the support of President Alassane Ouattara.
33 people were killed during the protests from October 30 to November 2. Of these, the 10 were killed when the military and presidential guard opened fire directly into a demonstration.
In mid-November, Michel Kafando was inducted as acting president and Lieutenant Colonel Yacouba Isaac Zida as acting prime minister.
In April 2015, the Interim Parliament decided to amend the Electoral Act, so that all MPs who had voted to amend the Constitution so that the number of electoral elections were diminished were excluded from running for election. A few days later, the former ruling party of the CDP and its allies announced that they were withdrawing from the National Transitional Council, and from the National Council for Reconciliation and Reform, because the amendment of the electoral law was a form of political exclusion. In July, ECOWAS ‘court handed down an order declaring the amended Election Act invalid. Acc. the court was in breach of human rights to prevent persons from standing alone because of their political views. A few days later, President Kafando declared that Burkina Faso would follow ECOWAS’s order, but the same day, the transitional government accused Blaise Compaoré of “high treason” pgfa. his attempt to change the constitution in order to stand for a 3rd term. At the same time, the government accused all government officials and former ministers of backing Compaoré of murder. The sudden accusations by the transitional government were seen as an attempt to keep serious candidates out of the impending election. Supporters of Compaoré appealed to the Constitutional Court to overturn the charges, but this one declared in mid-August that it did not have the necessary powers. The sudden accusations by the transitional government were seen as an attempt to keep serious candidates out of the impending election. Supporters of Compaoré appealed to the Constitutional Court to overturn the charges, but this one declared in mid-August that it did not have the necessary powers. The sudden accusations by the transitional government were seen as an attempt to keep serious candidates out of the impending election. Supporters of Compaoré appealed to the Constitutional Court to overturn the charges, but this one declared in mid-August that it did not have the necessary powers.
Note: the capital city of Burkina Faso, abbreviated as BFA by abbreviationfinder.org, is Ouagadougou with a population of 2,741,000 (2015 estimate). Other major cities include Bobo-Dioulasso with a population of 721,000 (2015 estimate).
Despite ECOWAS’s ruling and President Kafando’s declaration in July, the Constitutional Court issued a ruling on August 25 stating that the Election Act had not been invalidated by Burkina Faso authorities and therefore continued to apply. It then banned 42 candidates from running for parliament, including CDP chairman Eddie Komboïgo and ADF-RDA chairman Gilbert Noel Ouedraogo. Highly excited, the CDP declared it would call for civil disobedience and possibly electoral boycott. Four days later, the Constitutional Court declared that 6 of the 22 candidates who wanted to run for presidential election would not be allowed to stand. The CDP condemned the court’s ruling as politically motivated. On September 10, the court removed two more candidates from the list. They had been ministers under Compaoré.
