By Kwame Bediako
Burkina Faso’s military junta, led by Captain Ibrahim Traoré, has outlawed every political party in the country, escalating a crackdown that began with the 2022 coup.
Interior Minister Emile Zerbo announced the ban as essential to “rebuild the state,” blaming the multiparty system for “numerous abuses” that bred division, weakened social bonds, and fueled chaos through clientelism and corruption.
Previously restricted from public gatherings, parties now face total dissolution, with all assets seized by the state.
Zerbo promised a draft law to the Transitional Legislative Assembly soon. Before the coup, over 100 parties cluttered the landscape, with 15 holding parliamentary seats after 2020 elections, a fragmentation the junta decries as toxic.
Critics slammed the move as a blatant power grab, with an anonymous civil society figure telling the BBC, “This will not help the country move forward.”
Social media erupted in backlash, though Traoré backers rallied online, arguing the ban ends “business-like” parties that stifled progress.
Fears linger of another coup in Burkina’s volatile history, despite the regime’s pan-Africanist swagger.
Traoré, 37, rocketed to continental fame for scorning Western influence, but his authoritarian streak shines through.
He ousted predecessor Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba in 2022, missed a 2024 civilian handover, and extended rule by five years, mirroring trends in coup-hit neighbors like Guinea, where Gen. Mamady Doumbouya just won a landslide election.
