This article presents the selection process for candidates for the 2006 municipal elections in Burkina Faso. Given the historical waves of settlement in this region, the hypothesis that elective democracy is simply a way of reinforcing the legitimacy of indigenous inhabitants does not hold true. This article shows how the logic of the political parties, and particularly that of the ruling CDP party, is more or less in line with the grassroots approaches to deciding what constitutes the legitimacy and what the qualities are of a good candidate. These qualities are determined by local history, the candidate's own commitment, and the patterns of current political relations, which vary with the size of the constituency concerned.