Presidential election in Mali: the specter of abstention hovers over Timbuktu

In Mali, the campaign for the presidential election has officially begun. Malians will vote on July 29, to nominate among the 24 candidates in the running their future president. The stakes are high for the country, which is recovering with difficulty from the 2012 conflict, especially in the north of the country. In Timbuktu, despite the government's efforts to mobilize around the election, part of the population may not vote.

Since June 20, in Timbuktu, as in the rest of the country, voter cards have been distributed. " Everything is going well. Since I arrived, I have been in the card room, and I have seen that everything is going well. There is an affluence anyway. Now we must raise awareness, we must ask people to go out to take their cards, because in reality it is the card that is the strength of the very transparency of the vote "said Assoumane Toure, president of Regional Electoral Commission

Mahamane Aligi Toure is a young unemployed graduate. He caresses the dream of being a journalist one day. His voter's card, he has withdrawn, but does not intend to use it.

" We must see our city how it is, he says. We can not even get to Bamako, there is no road. We do not feel Malian at all. Personally, I removed the card like any good citizen, but this time I will not vote for anyone because all these candidates there, they will come tell us to vote, they will come with T-shirt money, and we will vote for them and they will leave and it's over.

A resentment that worries civil society, even if it understands its causes. " This is very important in Timbuktu because we have the impression that authority is absent, that we do not have the attractive authorities here, that the region is left to itself. So it is good to vote for the region to be resurrected. By not voting, they may bring back mediocre, so stay home, do not go to vote, this is not the solution "said Harandé Toure, representative of the Malian Association for the Protection of Human Rights. the man

To ensure the transparency of the poll two representatives of the civil society will play the observers in each voting center.