Burkina Faso's ruling party wins 36 Senate seats

Burkina Faso's ruling Congress for Democracy and Progress (CDP) has won 36 Senate seats, according to the newly released provisional results. The results published by the National Organizing Committee following Sunday's polls also showed that the Convention of Democratic Forces of Burkina (CFD/B) took one seat and the Burkina Democratic Rally (RDB) scored two others. Both parties are allied with the presidential camp. Out of the 18,473 registered municipal councillors, 14,196 voted, a turnout rate of 76.84 percent. In total, six political parties within the presidential camp or associated with the ruling party took part in the senatorial elections. The six include the CDP, the CFD-B, the RDB, the National Union for Democracy and Development (UNDD), the Union for the Republic (UPR) and the AND/PJS. Out of the 89 members of the future Senate, President Blaise Compaore will appoint 29 and 21 will come from among the religious and traditional communities, trade unions, employers' unions and the diaspora. The opposition has opposed the creation of the Senate, terming it as a waste of public funds and a route through which the ruling party wants to use to amend Article 37 of the Constitution to allow Compaore to contest again during the 2015 elections, when his second term comes to an end.