#africanews #ibrahimtraoré #ecowas

When Ibrahim Traore first took over power through a coup in 2022, the only thing that ECOWAS, the African Union, international blocs such as the European Union, the World Bank and IMF, and Burkina Faso’s foreign partners including the USA and France were concerned about was when an election will be conducted in the country. Not one of these groups bothered to find out the reason why the coup occurred and how exactly it was different from the previous military coups. The same thing happened in Mali and most recently Niger, with all the groups calling for a return to civilian rule and emphasizing the need for an election. Some of them such as ECOWAS even went as far as threatening to intervene militarily unless civilian rule is restored while others suspended financial aid to pressure the military juntas to restore civilian rule and conduct an election. However, the question is, what is the big deal about conducting an election? Out of all the elections conducted in all the African countries since Independence, how many have truly been beneficial to the African people? And, why is the West so concerned and putting pressure on the military junta to conduct an election?