Roch Marc Christian Kabore campaigning

Burkina Faso votes tomorrow 29 November  in its first free election in three decades , to choose a replacement for long-time leader Blaise Compaore, who was ousted a year ago in a military-backed popular uprising.

The polls were pushed back from Oct. 11 after an abortive coup in September by members of the now-disbanded elite presidential guard (RSP), but are expected to pass off peacefully, after authorities said they aborted a planned attack on the country.

Burkinabe Security forces  said they disrupted what was described as a “large-scale attack” after  arresting 13 suspects and seizing weapons and bomb-making materials in the west near Mali’s border, the security minister said Friday.

Burkina Faso has set up checkpoints at the entrances to cities and plans to close its borders for Sunday’s voting.

Zephirin Diabre: on the campaign trail

“This is definitely the most open election since the country’s independence,” said Cynthia Ohayon, West Africa analyst for the International Crisis Group. “You actually don’t know who is going to win, even though there are front-runners.”

Compaore ruled the former French colony, a cotton and gold producer, for 27 years until his bid to change the constitution to maintain his grasp on power provoked protests that eventually forced his resignation.

Fourteen candidates have put themselves forward, but – in the absence of accurate opinion polls – analysts say only two have a real chance of winning: Roch Marc Kabore, once a prime minister under Compaore, and Zephirin Diabre, a businessman.

Kabore heads the Movement of People for Progress (MPP), made up of disaffected allies of the former president who left the party months before Compaore stood down. Diabre fronts the Union for Progress and Change (UPC), which was the formal opposition.

Kabore draws support from the business elite and, as a member of the largest ethnic group, traditional chiefs. Diabre has international ties from his years at the United Nations Development Programme and Areva, a French nuclear company.

Many people say they will vote for the candidate who has the best chance of promoting economic growth. The September coup cost the already small economy more than $50 million in lost revenue, trimming growth by 0.3 percentage points.

Corruption and justice are also issues for voters, prompting a resurgence in the popularity of charismatic former leader Thomas Sankara, a Marxist revolutionary dubbed “Africa’s Che Guevara” who was assassinated in a 1987 coup led by Compaore.

For some young people, the front runners’ ties to Compaore have evoked disillusionment.

“Blaise ruled for 27 years,” said student Mariam Traore. “Roch was with him for 25 years. He’s the same thing.”