LUSAKA, (The Southern African Times) – Incumbent Burkina Faso President Roch Kabore was leading with just three voting districts declared on Monday, the electoral commission said, a day after voting dominated by the threat of Islamist violence.
Hundreds of thousands of citizens were unable to vote on Sunday because their polling stations remained closed for fear of attack.
Groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State operate across vast swathes of Burkina Faso, part of a widening jihadist threat in West Africa’s Sahel, a semi-arid region south of the Sahara Desert.
Kabore, who was first elected in 2015, led in all three of a total of 360 voting districts whose results were announced on Monday afternoon, totalling more than five times as many votes as his nearest rival, Eddie Komboigo.
Komboigo is the head of the party of Blaise Compaore, who was president for 27 years until a 2014 revolution. Kabore’s other main competitor in the field of 13 candidates is former finance minister and 2015 runner-up Zephirin Diabre.
The three districts announced are considered favourable to Kabore. Analysts expect a tight race that could go to a second round if no candidate wins more than 50 percent.
The commission said it would continue to announce results over the course of the day.
