(3 minutes read)
· The president of the Union for Progress and Change (UPC), Burkina Faso’s main opposition party, Zephirin Diabré, and former Prime Minister Isaac Zida, recently filed their nominations for the November 22 presidential election
· Supporters of former Prime Minister Yacouba Isaac Zida, who is now in exile in Canada, also submitted his candidacy, assuring that he would be back for the election campaign
The president of the Union for Progress and Change (UPC), Burkina Faso’s main opposition party, Zephirin Diabré, and former Prime Minister Isaac Zida, recently filed their nominations for the November 22 presidential election. In the 2015 elections, Diabré came second with 29.65% of the votes, defeated by current President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré. The present incumbent (Kabore) is also seeking a second term
Supporters of former Prime Minister Yacouba Isaac Zida, who is now in exile in Canada, also submitted his candidacy, assuring that he would be back for the election campaign.In exile in Canada since 2016, Zida, who is the MPS candidate and whose return has been repeatedly announced by his supporters, is facing an arrest warrant for “desertion in peacetime and refusal to obey”.
Zida seized power on 1 November 2014, the day after the fall of Blaise Compaoré. After strong pressure from political parties, civil society and the international community, he vacated the seat for Michel Kafando, a retired diplomat, who immediately appointed him Prime Minister in a transitional government.
