02:51 – Mali: the two main candidates say they are in the lead

The Malian political clbad on Monday welcomed the holding of the first round of the presidential election, however disturbed by attacks, the camp of the outgoing president announcing "largely in the lead" and that of his main rival predicting a second round between the two men.

Voters in this vast West African country were called upon to choose between President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, 73, and his 23 competitors, including the leader of the opposition, Soumaïla Cissé, 68. [19659002] The international community, present militarily with the French force Barkhane, who took over the operation Serval launched in 2013 against the jihadists, and with the UN peacekeepers, expects the winner a revival of the agreement of peace signed in 2015 by the government camp and the former Tuareg-dominated rebellion, the application of which accumulates delays.

Despite this agreement, jihadist violence not only persisted, but spread from the north to the south. central and southern Mali, then to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger, often mingling with inter-community conflicts.

Initial results were not expected until Tuesday or Wednesday, provisional official results e announced by Friday, before a possible second round on August 12.

But according to the first results compiled by the coalition supporting the outgoing president, "Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta comes largely ahead," said Mahamadou Camara, a door Candidate's speech, refraining from providing quantified results so as not to contravene the law. "He is in a good position to ensure his succession," he added.

For his part, the campaign director of the leader of the opposition, Tiébilé Dramé, badured "to be able" to affirm that a second round would oppose MM. Keïta and Cissé, as in 2013.

The project of supporters of the outgoing president to have him re-elected in the first round "is already a failure," added Dramé, denouncing "jams ballot boxes in several localities in the north "In the evening, the camp of another prominent candidate, the businessman Aliou Boubacar Diallo, also badured the" certainty "that it would be in the second round ", adding:" we want to steal the victory. "

– Attack vs. participation –

The participation rate was not known in the immediate future but was expected to be low, according to first observations of election observers

According to a source at the Ministry of Territorial Administration, it should be in line with the trend generally observed in this country, where less than one-third of the over-15s are literate.

Participation should also be affected by r a series of alleged jihadist attacks that disrupted voting, mainly in rural areas of the center, despite the mobilization of more than 30,000 members of the national and foreign security forces.

For "various reasons", the vote 716 of the more than 23,000 polling stations in the country, according to the government. Nearly 600 offices were badigned to the Mopti region (center), but in all the others, the vote "went generally well and in satisfactory conditions."

Until the last moment, "all world thought that the elections were not going to happen, "confessed Monday, a commercial Bamako, Hamada Toure.

-" country highly troubled "-

The conduct of the poll" shows nevertheless that an electoral process can be held in a very troubled country, "Aurélien Tobie, senior researcher on Mali at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) told AFP, while questioning the ability of the next president to transform the lives of Malians

"Whoever wins this election will be a puppet in the hands of France and the countries crossed," said the main jihadist alliance of the Sahel, linked to Al -Qaeda, in its claim to firing rockets that targeted Sunday the camp of the UN Mission (Minusma) in Aguelhok (north-east).

The Malian Touareg Iyad Ag Ghaly, leader of this alliance, the "Support Group to the 'Islam and the Muslims', is the leader of one of the Islamist groups who seized all the north of Mali in 2012.

He had invited himself in the end of campaign, fustigeant in a video the " crimes "of the Malian army against civilians and the election, source of" illusions. "

According to Sean Smith, badyst for Africa at risk consulting firm Verisk Maplecroft, this presidential" constitutes a progress by report to the local elections of 2016 ", the last election in the country, since this time the former rebellion has accepted that the vote takes place in the areas it controls, including its stronghold of Kidal (northeast). [19659002AccordingtoAbdoulayeToureacomputerscientist"wemustfightagainstcorruptionandrestoretheauthorityofthestate"Forhim"betweentwodemonswemustchoosetheleast"hesays:"Ipreferathiefwhoworksathiefwhodoesnothing"