Jihadist threat keeps 300,000 voters from Burkina polls

Hundreds of thousands of voters in Burkina Faso were unable to cast ballots in Sunday's general election due to security threats, officials said, as the West African nation grapples with a growing jihadist insurgency.  

An undisclosed number of troops were deployed for the presidential and parliamentary polls, which are widely expected to see President Roch Marc Christian Kabore re-elected.

But no votes were cast in one-fifth of the country, where large swathes of territory remain outside the state's control and jihadists strike almost daily.