GOVERNMENT
With Compaore
alone at the helm, a democratic constitution was approved by referendum
in 1991. In December 1991, Compaore was elected President, running
unopposed after the opposition boycotted the election. The opposition
did participate in the following year's legislative elections,
in which the ruling party won a majority of seats.
The government
of the Fourth Republic includes a strong presidency, a prime minister,
a Council of Ministers presided over by the president, a unicameral
National Assembly, and the judiciary. The legislature and judiciary
are nominally independent but remain susceptible to executive
influence.
Burkina held multiparty municipal elections in 1995, 2000, and 2006, as well as legislative elections in 1997, 2002, and 2007. Balloting was considered largely free and fair in all elections despite minor irregularities. However, the ruling party's dominance meant that the playing field was not entirely even. The Congress for Democracy and Progress (CDP), the governing party, won overwhelming majorities in all the elections except for the 2002 legislative elections, where the CDP won with only a small majority of the 111 seats. The next municipal elections are set for 2011.
Compaore
won the November 1998 presidential election for a second 7-year
term against two minor-party candidates. But within weeks of Compaore's
victory the domestic opposition took to the streets to protest
the December 13, 1998 murder of leading independent journalist
Norbert Zongo, whose investigations of the death of the President's
brother's chauffeur suggested involvement of the Compaore family.
The Collective Against Impunity, including civil society groups, human rights associations, and opposition parties--led by human rights activist Halidou Ouedraogo and opposition political party leaders including the late Prof. Joseph Ki-Zerbo and (for a while) Hermann Yameogo, son of the first President--challenged Compaore and his government to bring Zongo's murderers to justice and make political reforms. The Zongo killings still resonate in Burkina politics, though not as strongly as in the past. There has been no significant progress on the investigation of the case. The case is not closed; it is suspended and can be re-activated until July 2016 if new information is brought before the courts.
Compaore was re-elected to the presidency for a 5-year term in November 2005. Observers considered the election to have been generally free, despite minor irregularities, but not entirely fair due to the ruling party's control of official resources. The current cabinet is dominated by Compaore and the CDP, who continue to dominate all areas of government. Given the fragile roots of democratic institutions, constitutional checks and balances are seldom effective in practice. The constitution was amended in 2000 to limit the president to a 5-year term, renewable once, beginning with the November 2005 election. The amendment was controversial because it did not make any mention of retroactivity, meaning that President Compaore's eligibility to present himself for the 2005 presidential election, his third, was a matter of debate. The Constitutional Court ruled in October 2005 that the amendment was not retroactive, and Compaore went on to win the November 2005 presidential election with over 80% of the vote. Most international and national electoral observers believed that the election was fair. In 2007, the CDP won a majority in the May legislative elections, which observers declared generally free and orderly despite irregularities including fraud involving voter identification cards. Observers agreed that the 2004 revision of the electoral code negatively impacted the 2002 gains of opposition political parties during the 2007 legislative elections. The next presidential elections will be in November 2010. Compaore is expected to run again. The next legislative elections will be in May 2012.
While civilian authorities generally maintain effective control of the security forces, there have been instances in which elements of the security forces acted independently.
Principal
Government Officials
President--Blaise Compaore
Prime Minister--Tertius Zongo
State
Secretaries
Human Rights Promotion--Monique Ilboudo
Literacy--Jeanne Some
Youth--Bassirou Ly
Ambassador to the United States--Paramanga Ernest Yonli
Burkina
Faso maintains an embassy
in the United States at 2340 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington,
DC 20008 (tel. 202-332-5577).
Type: Republic.
Independence: August 5, 1960.
Constitution: June 11, 1991.
Branches: Executive--president (head of state)
prime minister (head of government). Legislative--one chamber.
Judiciary--independent.
Subdivisions: 13 regions, 45 provinces, 350 departments.
Political parties: Congress for Democracy and
Progress (CDP), Alliance for Democracy Federation/ African Democratic
Assembly (ADF/RDA), Party for Democracy and Progress/Socialist
Party (PDP/PS), National Union for Democracy and Development (UNDD),
and numerous other small opposition parties.
Suffrage: Direct universal.
Central government budget (2004): $540 million.
Defense: 5.5% of government budget.
