The transitional parliament in Burkina Faso works after the January coup

Ouagadougou, 22 Mar The transitional parliament in Burkina Faso began functioning on Tuesday with the election of its president, Academician Aboubacar Toguyeni, almost two months after the military coup d'état on 24 January. “My mandate will be part of the sense of commitment to Burkina Faso in its quest for security, dignity and honor,” said the new president of the Transitional Legislative Assembly (ALT). Toguyéni, elected with 59 votes out of 70 parliamentarians (71 in total but one was absent), said that the three-year transition imposed by the military junta that leads the country will lay “the foundations of a fairer society and the moralization of public life.” “We will take the initiative to propose laws and any other action in the sense of the nation's best interests,” said the president, professor of Fisheries Sciences at the Nazi Boni University of Bobo-Dioulasso (west). The coup leader and interim president of Burkina Faso, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Henri Damiba, elected 21 of the 71 ALT deputies, while the rest were selected by the security and defense forces, political parties, civil society groups and the thirteen regions that make up this West African country. The Parliament began to move after Damiba approved on the 5th the appointment of a transitional Government. On February 28, the president signed a Transitional Charter stating that his military junta will govern Burkina Faso for a three-year transitional period. According to the document, the transitional president, prime minister and president of parliament will not be able to participate in the general elections that should be held at the end of that period. The military seized power after an escalation of social unrest in recent months due to the insecurity generated by jihadist violence. The junta confirmed the coup d'état on state television and announced that it had deposed President Roch Kaboré - who ended up resigning - in addition to other measures, such as the dissolution of the Government and Parliament or the suspension of the Constitution. Burkina Faso, a country bordering Mali, Niger, Ivory Coast, Togo and Benin, has a population of about 20 million people and has been suffering from jihadism since 2015. The attacks, which are attributed to groups allied to Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, have resulted in more than 1.5 million internally displaced persons, according to the Government of Burkina. The Burkina Faso coup is the fourth to suffer the West African region in the last year and a half, following the two events in Mali (August 2020 and May 2021), a country that also suffers from jihadism; and that of Guinea-Conakry (September 2021). CHIEF tcs-pa/fp