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Bamako – Counting was under way Monday in Mali following a halcyon of halibut at the time of polling stations in the Sahel country.
Despite the violence, candidates and authorities praised Sunday's first round of voting, relieved that the violence – which included the torching of polling stations and badaults on electoral officials – caused no casualties.
Security was a central issue in the campaign, in which 73-year-old President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita is seeking re-election with the international community hoping the poll will strengthen a 2015 peace agreement.
Leading the pack of his 23 challengers is Soumaila Cisse, 68, a finance and economy minister training, who lost by a wide margin in the 2013 election that brought Keita to power.
Cisse's campaign director said the team was "legitimately satisfied" after the vote, while slamming authorities for failing to provide adequate security – even though 30,000 security personnel were deployed throughout the country.
"Very luckily, there were no casualties," the campaign said in a statement following the polls, which were observed by teams from the European Union, African union, the regional ECOWAS grouping and the Francophonie organization.
Cisse's team had warned of possible election fraud, claiming that there were two electoral lists and hundreds of fake polling stations.
He and other challengers who include several forming ministers and just one woman – an entrepreneur – have accused Keita of incompetence on security matters.
Most of the violence on Sunday in the midst of the sprawling semi-desert country, regions already hit by ethnic unrest and jihadism. 19659002] Notably the central Mopti region has seen frequent clashes between Fulani herders and farmers who have killed dozens since the beginning of the year.
Not a single
In Mali's north, where the state is barely present, the armed groups have been shown to be at gunpoint. 19659003] Violence also marred the lead-up to the vote, despite the presence of 15,000 A peacekeepers, 4,500 French troops and a much heralded five-nation anti-terror G5 Sahel force
The jihadist violence has spread from northern Mali to Burkina Faso and Niger, often inflaming communal conflicts.
Mali, considered a troubled state of the Sahel region, one of the world's poorest countries, with most people living on less than $ 2 a day.
The 2015 agreement, which has been divided between the two sides of the world, government-allied groups and Tuareg form rebels to fight jihadist fighters in the nort
– "God does not like elections" –
The organization of the vote was "a huge security challenge," Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga said late Sunday, praising the proceedings "despite minor security incidents." 19659002] Election officials were attacked, polling stations destroyed and state administrators banned from villages by armed groups, according to local authorities and observers.
And there was no voting in the village of Lafia, in the northern Timbuktu region, after the nerd These sources were set on fire, local authorities said.
One source said the boxes were burned after he said they were jihadists fired shots into the sky. "One of them said 'God does not like elections'."
Low turnout
Elsewhere in the country, however, voting occurred smoothly despite low vote turnout, according to election observers and AFP journalists
Official participation figures were not
"If we take into account the rates of the past 10 years, turnout was at all abysmal," a local government official said, without elaborating.
Turnout has never exceeded 50% in the first round of a presidential election since the advent of democracy in the French colony in 1992.
First results are expected by late Tuesday, and the official outcome is set to follow on Friday at the latest
If no candidate gains more than 50% of the first-round vote, a second round will take place on August 12.
AFP
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