Ability or motivation? Voter registration and turnout in Burkina Faso

2015 elections in Burkina Faso marked a regime change driven by the public uprisings of the year before. The elections were widely taken transparently and freely run, in contrast to past experiences. However, only around two-thirds of the registered voters, who constitute around two-thirds of the voting-age population, cast their vote in the elections. Using data from an original survey experiment, we investigate the determinants of participation in these elections, focusing on the process --- looking at both the registration and voting stages. Using a two-stage sample selection model, we find that socio-demographic and economic indicators are important only in the registration stage, whereas ethnicity becomes the prominent factor in the turnout decisions.