After roller-coaster year, Burkina votes for new President

Ouagadougou: After a rocky year that saw Burkina's people rise up to oust a longtime leader and then repel a military coup, the west African nation on Sunday elects a new president in a vote hailed as a fresh start for the country.

"We will ensure that true democracy is consolidated in Burkina Faso," interim leader Michel Kafando said last month as the nation of 20 million people geared up to elect a new leader for the first time in almost three decades.

Security will be tight with the authorities deploying between 20,000 and 25,000 troops to ward off the threat of a jihadist attack, following two recent assaults against police barracks on the country's long western border with troubled Mali.

"There is no such thing as a zero security risk," junior minister for security Alain Zagre told AFP, saying "patrols will be practically multiplied by three" and all of the country's security forces mobilised during the vote.