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Benewende Sankara endorsed to contest for Burkina Faso presidency

Xinhua, May 19, 2015 Adjust font size:

Me Benewende Stanislas Sankara has been endorsed by ten political parties claiming to be followers of the ideology of Burkina Faso's ex-president Thomas Sankara, as their candidate in the forthcoming presidential elections.

Me Sankara who is not related to the former president, was one of the lawyers representing the family of Thomas Sankara who was assassinated in a coup in 1987.

"The country was liberated from a regime but not from a system. We should complete the work we began during last year's popular uprising through the ballot box," Me Sankara said over the weekend, urging the Burkinabe people to defeat the system established 27 years ago by deposed president Blaise Compaore.

Since the death of Thomas Sankara, numerous political parties claiming to believe in the "Sankarist" idealogy have emerged but they have mostly been divided on the political scene. They never united to oppose the former regime, until its fall in October last year.

Following last Saturday's intervention by Mariam Sankara, Thomas Sankara's widow, the "Sankararist" parties agreed to work together to win the presidency.

Madam Sankara urged all those who loved her late husband to support the candidate endorsed by the "Sankarist" parties.

Burkina Faso was plunged in a political crisis in October 2014 after the fall of Compaore's regime. The transition authorities have promised to organize presidential and legislative elections on Oct. 11, 2015. Endi