Burkina Faso's political opposition wants to keep the date of the presidential and legislative elections despite the coronavirus pandemic, which led to the suspension of certain activities in preparation for the double polls.

"The opposition reaffirmed its position that the coupled presidential and legislative elections should be held in November 2020, in accordance with the Constitution, the Electoral Code and the conclusions of the Political Dialogue," said the President of the New Alliance of Faso (NAFA), Mamoudou Hama DICKO.

"No other scenario is conceivable, and no pretext must be found to fall into legal tricks to go beyond the people's mandates," said the keynote speaker.

As a reminder, at the invitation of the President of Faso, the Political Opposition had participated in two meetings on Friday 17 and Thursday 23 April.

According to Mr. Dicko, the topic on the agenda at the first meeting was the 2020 elections, and the second one on Covid-19.

At these meetings, the opposition attended presentations by the Chairman of CENI, the Director General of the National Identification Office (ONI), and members of the Government.

On the first topic, the double presidential and legislative elections of November 2020, the Chairman of CENI presented three scenarios.

The basic scenario is the resumption of recruitment operations and the holding of the elections on time, taking into account the provisions of the Constitution, which stipulates that: "No draft or proposal for the revision of the Constitution shall be admissible if it calls into question: the clause limiting the number of presidential terms; the duration of the presidential term; the nature and republican form of the State; the multiparty system; the integrity of the national territory".

In the exchanges, INEC said it was capable of organizing elections at the right time, said Prof. Dicko.

But, he continued, the electoral body noted that if there is any delay, it will affect certain aspects of the Electoral Code.

And in that case, it would need the political class to make the appropriate amendments.

According to the opposition, there was a consensus on this point and CENI was asked to transmit to the two components the precise legal points on which it could ask the political class for amendments to the Electoral Code.