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Publication on July 31, 2018, 10:32 AM
By Agence France-Presse
Counting was underway in Mali as a result of a key presidential election that saw the poll suspended in hundreds of polling stations Despite the violence, candidates and authorities welcomed Sunday's first round of voting, relieved that violence – which included flaring polling stations and assaults on election officials – No casualties
The first results are expected Tuesday night, and the official result is as follows: to be followed by Friday at the latest (AFP / ISSOUF SANOGO / MANILA BULLETIN)
Security was at the center of the campaign, in which 73-year-old President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita searches
"He is in a good position to get a second term, Mahamadou Camara, a spokesman for the president, told reporters:
Soumaila Cisse, 68, former Minister of Finance and Economy , lost the top of his list of 23 challengers Cissé's campaign director, Tiebile Drame, said the team was "legitimately satisfied", but criticized the authorities for failing to provide adequate security Some 30,000 members of the security forces have been deployed throughout the country.
"Fortunately, there were no casualties," said Drame, insisting that his candidate would force a second round. "Last Monday, the campaign of another prominent candidate, businessman Aliou Boubacar Diallo, said that he was" certain "that" he is not in the same position. he would also be in the second round, adding that "the first round was already a failure". we want to steal the victory.
The polls were observed by teams from the European Union, the African Union, the ECOWAS regional grouping and the organization of La Francophonie.
"God does not like elections"
The Cissé team had warned of possible election fraud, saying that there were two electoral lists and hundreds of false polling stations.
He and other challengers, including several former ministers and a woman, an entrepreneur, accused Keita of incompetence in matters of security
Most of Sunday's violence occurred in the north and south. sprawling semi-desert country center, regions already affected by ethnic unrest and jihadism
. No vote was held in 716 polling stations of the two regions following threats and attacks from armed groups, government figures showed – without an announced plan to give residents a chance to vote.
"Sean Smith, senior analyst of West Africa risk consulting firm Verisk Maplecroft, told AFP:" In the north of Mali, where the l 39; State is hardly Currently, the armed groups that signed the peace agreement have helped to ensure security.
"It's the big difference between the north and the center of the country: it's possible to negotiate with armed groups in the north, but not," said Aurelien Tobie, senior researcher at the North. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
Violence also spoiled the preparations for the vote, despite the presence of 15,000 peacekeepers, 4,500 French soldiers and a large number of jihadist violence from the north. from Mali to the center and south of the country and overflowed into neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger, which often ignited community conflicts.
Mali, considered a mainstay in troubled Sahel region , is one of the poorest countries in the world, with less than $ 2 a day.
The organization of the vote was "an enormous security challenge," Prime Minister Soumeylou Electoral authorities have been attacked, the polling stations were destroyed ts and state administrators were banned from villages by armed groups, according to local authorities and observers.
No vote was held in the village of Lafia, in the northern Timbuktu region, after the urns were burned, local authorities said.
A source said the boxes had been burned. "One of them said" God does not like elections. "
Low turnout
Elsewhere in the country, however, polls Was successful despite a low turnout, according to election observers and AFP journalists
Preliminary estimates from the group of national observers POCIM, which deployed more than 2,000 monitors across the country, have increased the participation rate to 37%
while remaining unchanged. "
The first results are expected Tuesday night, and the official result should arrive Friday at the latest.
If no candidate wins more than 50% of the votes in the first round, a second round will take place on August 12th.
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