The Union for Rebirth / Sankarist Party (French: Union pour la Renaissance / Parti Sankariste, UNIR / PS) was a political party in Burkina Faso.
History
Party headquarters of the UNIR/PS with a poster portraying Thomas Sankara.
The party was founded on November 1, 2000. Its president is lawyer Bénéwendé Stanislas Sankara,[1] who bears no family relationship to Thomas Sankara.[2]
The name "Sankarist" party appears to be a reference to both the late President Thomas Sankara and the party's current leader. The party subscribes to Sankarism.
At the legislative elections on 5 May 2002, the party won 2.4% of the popular vote and three out of 111 seats. In the presidential election of 13 November 2005, its candidate Bénéwendé Stanislas Sankara took second place with 4.88% of the popular vote.[3] At the 2007 parliamentary elections, the party won four seats.
On November 1st, 2021, it was announced that the party merged with the Mouvement Patriotique pour le Salut and other small Sankarist parties and organisations into a new party, the Union pour la Renaissance/ Mouvement patriotique sankariste (Union for Rebirth / Patriotic Sankarist Movement) or UNIR/MPS.[5][6] Bénéwendé Sankara continued to lead this party until he was succeeded by interim president Augustin Loada in January 2023.[7]
^De-Valera N.Y.M. Botchway and Moussa Traore, "Military Coup, Popular Revolution or Militarised Revolution?", in A Certain Amount of Madness: The Life, Politics and Legacies of Thomas Sankara (ed. Amber Murrey), London: Pluto Press, 2018, p. 22.
^Bettina Engels, "Social Movement Struggles and Political Transition in Burkina Faso", in A Certain Amount of Madness: The Life, Politics and Legacies of Thomas Sankara (ed. Amber Murrey), London: Pluto Press, 2018, pp. 264-265.
