The campaign for the presidential election in Burkina Faso began on Saturday, three weeks before the election which will pit the outgoing Roch Marc Christian Kaboré against twelve other candidates including the opponent Zephirin Diabré and several close to former President Blaise Compaoré .
Giant posters of President Kaboré and the leader of the opposition, Zephirin Diabré, of the Union for Progress and Change (UPC), the two main favorites, were visible in Ouagadougou, mainly on the main axes of the capital, proclaiming: “On the move for Roch 2020”, or “Together, let’s save Faso with Diabré”.
Coronavirus obliges, the posters reminding the measures barrier to the entries and exits of the various meeting places and gatherings side by side flags in the colors of the parties and posters of the candidates.
“Only the programs of the candidates should be highlighted through television debates and avoid large gatherings which can further spread the disease,” said Noufou Sanfo, a 24-year-old student, discovering the candidates’ posters on giant signs.
Friday evening, the president of the Independent National Electoral Commission (Céni), Newton Ahmed Barry, notably recalled the prohibition of “advertising practices of a political nature”, “gifts and gifts of any kind that may influence or attempt to influence the vote ”of the voters.
“Do not sell off the future, your future, our future, for a T-shirt, tea, a bag of rice or for banknotes,” he told voters.
“Each candidate, each party, each group of independents must ban in words and behavior anything that can undermine our social cohesion, our living together”, warned Mr. Barry, believing that “the policy c ‘ is not war ”.
While its opening rally was scheduled in Bobo-Dioulasso, the People’s Movement for Progress (MPP) had to rearrange its program, postponing this first outing, due to the death on Tuesday of President Kaboré’s father, while the UPC begins its tour in Tenkodogo (center-east), one of its electoral strongholds.