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Misanet.com / IRIN, 13 May - The ruling Congress for Democracy and Progress (CDP) saw its share of seats in Burkina Faso's 111-member parliament shrink from 91 to 52 percent at legislative elections held on 5 May. Results released on Sunday by the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) gave the CDP 57 seats, while opposition parties took 54. The ruling party had previously held 101 seats. Opposition politicians welcomed the results. "This shows the strength of my party and the opposition parties as a whole," Aly Coulibaly, campaign manager of the Alliance for Democracy and Federation/ African Democratic Rally (ADF/RDA), said. The ADF/RDA obtained 17 seats while the Party for Democracy and Progress/Socialist party (PDP/PS) won 10. The remaining 27 seats went to 10 other opposition parties. About 64 percent of the three million registered voters turned out at the elections, the first in which a single ballot paper was used. This, the authorities said, was designed to minimise fraud. To ensure that the election was properly conducted, the CENI deployed 44,000 agents in the 10,902 polling stations throughout the country. Some 2,000 national and 30 international observers monitored the elections, in which about 30 parties took part. Observers described the polls as fair despite a few irregularities. Augustin Loada, chairman of the USA-based Centre for Democratic Governance said the elections took place "with relative transparency".
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