The West African cotton state of Burkina Faso was set to choose a president on Sunday amid opposition charges of vote rigging and abuses by the president, widely expected to return to power.
President Blaise Compaore, in office for 18 years, is standing for a third time in one of the poorest countries of Africa where half the population lives beneath the poverty line.
Chosen as the candidate of the powerful ruling Democracy and Progress Party (CDP), Compaore (54) has served two seven-year terms since the reintroduction of multiparty elections in 1991.
About 1 000 foreign observers were on hand to monitor voting.
The opposition has accused the president’s camp of preparing to rig votes, claiming there were plans for ”massive electoral fraud by the regime”.
One candidate, Nayabtigungou Congo Kabore, appeared on television with three voting cards in his name.
”I have received three voting cards, which means I can vote in three different polling stations, so the data file is faulty,” he complained.
Moussa Michel Tapsoba, head of the independent electoral commission overseeing the poll, said: ”Our software can easily detect duplications, but there are people who have obtained several voting cards by slightly altering data about their identity.”
Opposition candidates, who have promised to improve health and education and reduce unemployment, have also accused the president of misappropriating state funds to finance his campaign.
”On the one hand, you have a super candidate using state resources and enjoying army support, and on the other opposition candidates who have nothing but sheer determination,” said Benewende Sankara, a main challenger.
Western diplomatic sources said Compaore has indeed mobilised a considerable amount of state resources as well as funds provided partly by friendly foreign heads of state.
Security has become a main election theme because of widespread armed highway robbery.
Almost every day the press reports attacks by gangs causing death and injury during hold-ups of buses, cars and trucks.
Opposing the ruling CDP is a fractured opposition whose popularity is difficult to assess as it boycotted the previous two presidential elections in 1991 and 1998.
A group of moderate par ties, the United Burkinabe Opposition, suffered a damaging blow to its reputation in an affair in which its leaders were accused of receiving funds from the president to obtain their political support.
Further to the left is a ”radical” grouping of 16 parties, called Changeover 2005, which is presenting two candidates.
The landlocked former French colony once known as Upper Volta was renamed in 1984 by Captain Thomas Sankara, whose regime renamed it Burkina Faso (”the land of upright men”).
Compaore, one of 12 candidates for the 3,9-million voters, came to power after overthrowing Sankara, the so-called father of the ”revolution” and his former military leader, who was killed during a 1987 coup.
The country was Africa’s leading cotton exporter in 2004, but has suffered from a drop in world cotton prices. — Sapa-AFP