Parliamentary elections postponed

Parliamentary elections in Burkina Faso that were slated for 28 April have been postponed to 5 May because of a low voter registration, the government announced on Tuesday.

The postponement, a government communique said, was decided during a special cabinet meeting. "After assesing the overall situation and registration conditions, the cabinet reached the conclusion that it is necessary to reorganise the electoral calendar to enable larger participation of citizens in polls," the communque read.

Voter registration, which started on 28 December 2001 and was due to end on 6 March, was also extended to 20 March. Only two million people had so far registered, out of an estimated four million eligible voters, the government said.

Officials told IRIN that the registration of voters was also slowed by a decision of the Independent Electoral Commission to forbid door-to-door and collective registration of families by any family member using documents. The commission took this measure to minimise fraud.

Some 28 parties have registered to contest in the polls. In the last legislative elections in May 1997, President Blaise Compaore's Congress for Democracy and Progress party, formed by a 1996 merger of 10 parties, won 101 of the 111 seats in parliament.