In alkaline medium, the kinetics of oxidation of two substituted benzazolylformamidines, namely N, N-dimethylN’-(1H-benzimidazol-2-yl) formamidine (BIF) and N, N-dimethyl-N’-(benzthiazol-2-yl) formamidine (BTF) by permanganate ion has been studied spectrophotometrically at a constant ionic strength of 0.1 mol dm-3 and at 25°C. The reactions exhibited first order kinetics with respect to [permanganate]. Fractional-first order dependences of both reactions on [reductants] and [alkali] were revealed. Increasing either ionic strength or solvent polarity of the medium had no significant effect on the rates. The final oxidation products of BIF and BTF were identified as 2-aminobenzimidazole and 2-aminobenzthiazole, respectively, in addition to dimethylamine and carbon dioxide. Under comparable experimental conditions, the oxidation rate of BIF was higher than that of BTF. The reaction mechanism adequately describing the kinetic results was proposed, and the reaction constants involved in the different steps of the mechanism have been evaluated. The activation parameters with respect to the rate-limiting step of the reactions, along with thermodynamic quantities were computed and discussed.