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Burkina Faso’s
leader Blaise Compaore appealed to voters on Sunday to cast their votes
amidst early signs of a weak turnout in a presidential poll where he is
seen as the clear favourite.

Compaore, 59, has
carved himself a niche as an important and sometimes a controversial
power-broker in the unstable West African region,with analysts in
particular citing his role in pushing for a return to civilian rule in
Guinea.

A Reuters witness
who toured the capital Ouagadougou noted only a trickle of early voters
and said a number of opposition parties had failed to place
representatives at polling stations to monitor the vote.”Voters should
turn out in large numbers for this election because it is an
opportunity for us to take stock and also to plan for the future,”
Compaore told reporters as he cast his vote in a booth in the capital
Ouagadougou.

Compaore seized
power in a 1987 coup. Despite allowing multi-party politics he has
faced little or no real opposition in a gold-mining and
cotton-producing country where income per head is half the average for
sub-Saharan Africa.

Compaore last won
election in 2005 with an overwhelming 80.3 percent. A weak turnout
among the 3.3 million registered voters would nonetheless undermine the
credibility of the poll result, which is due to be declared by November
25 at the latest.

A landlocked
country of 15 million people, Burkina Faso has avoided the instability
that has plagued its neighbours and has in recent years benefited from
high gold and cotton prices.But while Ouagadougou hosts a top African
film festival and has established itself as a venue for international
conferences,it is stuck at 161st place out of 169 countries on the
U.N.’s Human Development Index, a composite measure of life quality.

“It’s true, here,
we haven’t got anything but at least we have peace and that is the most
important thing,” said pensioner Alfred Ilboudo. “This isn’t perhaps
the best regime but I am voting for peace — just look around us.”
Others said they would vote against Compaore, but had little faith in
any of the six opposition candidates, none of whom has has had the
financial means to match a campaign that has seen him hold rallies in
even far-flung rural areas.

“It’s a foregone
conclusion,” said teacher Omar Tapsoba. “I am voting just to ease my
conscience because I don’t want to think that tomorrow this government
will still be in power because I didn’t cast my vote.”

REUTERS