Government
Type: Republic.
Independence: August 5, 1960.
Constitution: June 11, 1991.
Branches: Executive--president (head of state) prime minister (head of government). Legislative--two chambers.
Judiciary--independent.
Subdivisions: 45 provinces.
Political parties: Congress for Democracy and Progress (CDP), Alliance for Democracy Federation/ African Democratic Assembly (ADF/RDA), Party for Democracy and Progress (PDP), National Union for Democracy and Development (UNDD) and numerous small opposition parties.
Suffrage: Direct universal.
Central government budget (2001): $589.3 million.
Defense: 8.5% of government budget.

Burkina Faso Government
With Compaore alone at the helm, a democratic constitution was approved by referendum in 1991. In December 1991, Compaore was elected president, running unopposed after the opposition boycotted the election. The opposition did participate in the following year's legislative elections, in which the ruling party won a majority of seats.

The government of the Fourth Republic includes a strong presidency, a prime minister, a Council of Ministers presided over by the president, a unicameral National Assembly, and the judiciary. The legislature and judiciary are nominally independent but remain susceptible to executive influence.

Burkina held multiparty municipal elections in 1995 and 2000 and legislative elections in 1997 and 2002. Balloting was considered largely free and fair in all elections. The Congress for Democracy and Progress (CDP), the governing party, won overwhelming majorities in all the elections until the 2002 legislative election, where the CDP won with a small majority of the 111 seats. The opposition made large gains in the 2002 elections.

Compaore won the November 1998 presidential election for a second 7-year term against two minor-party candidates. But within weeks the domestic opposition took to the streets to protest the murder of leading independent journalist Norbert Zongo, whose investigations of the death of the President's brother's chauffeur suggested involvement of the Compaore family.

The opposition Collective Against Impunity, led by human rights activist Halidou Ouedraogo and including opposition political parties of Prof. Joseph Ki-Zerbo and (for a while) Hermann Yameogo, son of the first President, challenged Compaore and his government to bring Zongo's murderers to justice and make political reforms. The Zongo killings still resonate in Burkina politics, though not as strongly as in the past. There has been no significant progress on the investigation of the case.

The current cabinet is dominated by Compaore and the CDP. Given the fragile roots of democratic institutions, constitutional checks and balances are seldom effective in practice. The constitution was amended in 2000 to limit the President to a 5-year term, renewable once, beginning with the next presidential election in 2005. The amendment is controversial because it did not make any mention of retroactivity, meaning that President Compaore's eligibility to present himself is still a matter of debate. Most observers believe that the 2005 Presidential election will be a test of Burkina Faso's commitment to democracy, but the traditionally divided opposition also will have to come together and present a united front if it hopes to present a challenge to the ruling party.
source: http://www.state.gov