Bénéwendé Stanislas Sankara

Bénéwendé Stanislas Sankara (born February 23, 1959) is a Burkinabé politician and the President of the Union for Rebirth/Sankarist Movement (UNIR/MS) party.[1]

Sankara was born in Toéssin.[2] He founded the UNIR/MS in November 2000 and was one of three UNIR/MS candidates elected to the National Assembly in the 2002 parliamentary election. In the National Assembly, he was elected to the Pan-African Parliament. In June 2005 he resigned from both the National Assembly and the Pan-African Parliament to focus on his candidacy in the presidential election later in the year.[1] Running as the UNIR/MS candidate in the election, held on 13 November 2005, Sankara placed second out of 13 candidates, receiving 4.88% of the vote; President Blaise Compaoré won the election with an overwhelming majority.[1][3]

In the May 2007 parliamentary election, Sankara was elected to the National Assembly. He was one of four UNIR/MS candidates to be elected, and the only one elected on the party's national list.[2]

Reacting to moves to change the constitution to remove presidential term limits, Sankara said in late July 2009 that it was unacceptable to change the constitution so that President Compaoré could "spend his whole life in power".[4]

He was a candidate in the 2010 presidential election.[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Biography at La Petite Academie web site.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 List of candidates elected to the National Assembly in 2007 at the Wayback Machine (archived August 10, 2007), National Assembly website (French).
  3. ↑ Elections in Burkina Faso, African Elections Database.
  4. ↑ "Burkina : L'opposition dit «non» à la levée de la limitation des mandats", Reuters (Gaboneco.com), 29 July 2009 (French).
  5. ↑ Compaore to face six in Burkina Faso presidential election AFP, 9 October 2010