Burkina Faso ruling junta dissolves independent electoral commission

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Burkina Faso’s military rulers have dissolved the country’s independent electoral commission, authorities said.

Since taking power in a 2022 coup, the West African country’s military leaders have launched sweeping reforms, including postponing elections that were expected to restore civilian rule.

The government passed a law late Wednesday abolishing the Independent National Electoral Commission, which is responsible for organizing elections, citing its high cost, Minister of Territorial Administration Emile Zerbo said after a Cabinet meeting.

Abolishing the electoral commission will reinforce the country’s “sovereign control on the electoral process” and “limit foreign influences,” Zerbo added.

The state run television broadcaster RTB said the interior ministry will take control of future polls.

The junta in Burkina Faso seized power in Sept. 2022 by ousting the military rule of Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba about eight months after it staged a coup to remove democratically elected President Roch Marc Kaboré.

The country is one of several West African nations where the military has taken over in recent years, capitalizing on popular discontent with previous democratically elected governments over security issues.

The junta had initially set a goal of conducting elections to return the country to democratic rule by July 2024 but last year it signed a new charter that allows the country’s leader Capt. Ibrahim Traoré to remain in office until July 2029.

The transitional government has been running Burkina Faso under a constitution approved by a national assembly that included army officers, civil society groups and traditional and religious leaders.