The 1978 General Election was a two round election. No candidate received more than 50% of the votes in the first round, so following the election laws in Burkina Faso, the two candidates who received the most votes advanced to the second and final round. It was in that round that incumbent president Sangoulé Lamizana won the presidency with 56% of the vote in the second round. This election was the nation's first election with more than one party running, and the first since the 1977 Upper Voltan constitutional referendum passed.
