Over more than a quarter century in power, Campaoré has used an unusual formula to achieve relative stability in Burkina Faso-authoritarianism mixed with traces of democracy. And, in the presidential elections held in November 2010, he captured 80.2 percent of votes.Įdited by Henry Aaron, James M. Despite the fact that the opposition fielded several candidates, Campoaré won 80.35 percent of the votes cast in the 2005 presidential election. However, Campaoré’s supporters argued that because he was in office when the amendments went into effect, they did not apply to him and, hence, he was qualified to run for re-election in 2005. In 2000, the country’s post-Cold War 1991 constitution was amended to impose a limit of two five-year consecutive terms on the presidency.
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President Blaise Compaoré’s Time in Power As president, Campaoré reversed all the progressive policies that Sankara had implemented. In 1998, he won reelection for another seven-year term. In 1991, Campaoré was elected president in an election in which only 25 percent of the electorate participated because of a boycott movement organized and carried out by opposition parties. Blaise Compaoré, a former colleague of Sankara’s, killed Sankara and several of his confidants in a successful coup d’état. In 1984, the Sankara government changed the country’s name from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso and introduced many institutional reforms that effectively aligned the country with Marxist ideals. Sankara emerged as the country’s new leader.
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The radicals, led by Captain Thomas Sankara, eventually overthrew the government in August 1983, and Capt. There soon arose a political struggle within the CSP. Although it promised to transition the country to civilian rule and provide a new constitution, the Ouédraogo regime banned all political organizations, including opposition parties. Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo and the Council of Popular Salvation (CSP- Conseil du salut du peuple). Zerbo’s government was overthrown by Maj. Lamizana stayed in power until November 1980 when the military overthrew the government and installed Col. Sangoulé Lamizana and a collection of military elites took control of the government and subsequently dissolved the National Assembly as well as suspended the constitution. Shortly after assuming power, Yaméogo banned all political opposition, forcing mass riots and demonstrations that only came to an end after the military intervened in 1966.
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At independence on August 5, 1960, Maurice Yaméogo, leader of the Voltaic Democratic Union (Union démocratique voltaïque), became the country’s first president. The West African country has been plagued by dictators, autocracies and coups in the past. In Ouagadougou on Wednesday, citizens angry over the possibility that parliament might make it possible for Campaoré to stay in power indefinitely set fire to the parliament and forced legislators to postpone the vote that had been set for Thursday, Octoto decide the constitutional issue. Allowing him to run for election in November 2015 could extend his reign for another five years. This vote is extremely controversial: Current President Blaise Compaoré, who came to power in a coup in 1987, has ruled the country for 27 years. A vote was planned for Thursday, on whether to extend the current limit of two terms to three. On Tuesday, October 28, 2014, tens of thousands of citizens of Burkina Faso gathered in its capital city, Ouagadougou, and its second biggest city, Bobo Dioulasso, to protest proposed changes to its constitution regarding term limits.