THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF BURKINA FASO
Formerly known as the Republic of Upper Volta, the French colony was renamed Burkina Faso in 1984. Burkina Faso is a West African landlocked country boarded by Ghana and Togo to the south, Niger to the northeast, Mali to the northwest, Benin to the Southeast, and Ivory Coast to the southwest. The country’s official language is French with Ouagadougou as the largest and capital city, and an estimated population of 21 million people.
Gaining full independence in August 1960, Burkina Faso has experienced series of coup d’états leading to unstable governance processes until 2015 when successful general elections took place.
The legislative body of Burkina Faso is the National Assembly which is unicameral and constitutes 127 members with 14 (11.02%) being women and directly elected to a 5-year term in office.
The National Assembly elections of Burkina Faso are done through the voting system of the Party-list, with proportional representation of seats according to the simple electoral quotient and highest remainders. Vacancies arising between general elections are filled by substitute members elected at the same time as titular Deputies unless vacancies arise in the second half of the term of the Assembly.
Only Burkinabe citizens who are 18 years and above are required to vote and those who are 21 and above can contest for seats in the Assembly.
Heads of corporations, chairpersons of boards of directors, directors, managing directors, assistant managing directors, or managers in the private sector are as well not compatible to contest and persons elected from the private sector are relieved of their functions during their parliamentary term.
Out of 99 political parties contesting for the National Assembly seats in 2015, only 14 of them won with the 3 major parties winning the majority of seats; People’s Movement for Progress (MPP), Union for Progress and Change (UPC), and Congress for Democracy and Progress (CDP).
Source: https://data.ipu.org/content/burkina-faso?chamber_id=13352
Official Website: https://www.assembleenationale.bf/