The West African country held an election on Sunday, though polling stations were closed across swathes of the north and east where militants linked to Al Qaeda and Islamic state operate.

On Wednesday morning, after results from more than half of Burkina Faso's district's Cowboy was reported to have more than 593 0 votes, that's almost four times as much as his nearest rival, former finance Minister Zafar India.

Bray counting had resumed on Tuesday after a 24 hour pause caused when five opposition members of the electoral commission temporarily suspended their work.

They were concerned that some district's had not produced manual voting tallies to accompany Elektronik ones as required by law.

They returned on Wednesday but questioned the validation of results that had been resumed without their oversight.