How can we meet as a political committee to designate delegates when party activities are banned by the ruling junta? How can you respond within 24 hours to the invitation from the organizers when the invitation arrived only 24 hours before registration closed? What will be the topics covered and the terms of reference? Political parties or civil society organizations ask themselves many questions.
Doubtful, Yoporeka Somet, the spokesperson for the Sens political movement, believes that this meeting “will only be made up of people summoned by the MPSR to say what it wants to hear”. “So we will not be in this hypocrisy,” he says.
The Front for the Defense of the Republic also calls for a boycott of these meetings. “These national meetings will just be a meeting to help prolong the dictatorship and the submission of the Burkinabe people to President Traoré,” believes Inoussa Ouedraogo, spokesperson for the movement which denounces the failings of the MPSR’s power.
Unions and several civil society organizations say they do not want to go to these meetings either. Only religious and customary authorities should be present. It was under their moral authority that the transition charter was signed between Colonel Damiba and Captain Ibrahim Traoré in 2022. A charter which specified that the current president of the transition must return power next July.
“We don’t even know what we’re going to talk about”
On the other hand, some condition their participation, like Clément Sawadogo, the coordinator of the former alliance of parties of the presidential majority. He requests the postponement of the Conference for better preparation and the lifting of the suspension of the activities of political parties.
The parties of the former leader of the opposition led by Eddie Komboïgo are demanding security guarantees. In fact, supporters of the transition have called for demonstrations around the room where the work will take place. These parties also denounce the absence of a working document. “We don’t even know what we are going to talk about,” notes a CDP activist.
Frank collaboration
Finally, the unaffiliated opposition led by Professor Abdoulaye Soma for its part transmitted the list of its representatives to the organizing committee of the Conference. She assures of her frank collaboration in the supreme interest of the Burkinabe people.
According to a security Source, a special security system is planned for these Assizes. Patrols and searches of suspicious devices and individuals will take place. Controls will be reinforced at entries and exits from Ouagadougou.
