Presidential elections in Mali: pending results

Polling stations officially closed at 18:00 GMT in Mali yesterday Sunday for the first round of presidential elections. The incumbent president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, was facing 23 other candidates, including opposition leader Soumaïla Cissé. The vote was able to take place under normal conditions in the big cities of the country. Some difficulties are still to be noted in central and northern Mali. After the counting, now is the time for the centralization of results, a crucial process for the validity of the ballot.

In Bamako, as early as 6 pm, the polling stations closed as planned. The presidents, assessors of the majority and the opposition have started the last stage of this day, the counting and counting of votes, under the gaze of the observers. If the affluence appeared to decrease during the day, for the moment no participation rate has been communicated.

One of the stakes of this day was the security of the polls , especially in the center and the north of the country. Some incidents have been reported. Notably in the Kidal region, where in the middle of the day several shells fell in Aguelhok without causing any casualties. And in Lafia, a town of 16,000 inhabitants east of Timbuktu, gunmen burned the polls last night. The vote was canceled

Annulled Votes in the Center

In several villages in the center, attacks and threats also weighed on the day's proceedings. No vote in Gandamia, 45 kilometers from Douentza, where armed elements attacked election officials early this morning. The vote was also interrupted in the morning in two villages of Mariko commune near Niono, where armed men burst in and ransacked everything.

Sunday night the Ministry of Territorial Administration gave figures of polling stations where the poll could not be held in the regions of the center Mopti, Segou and some circles in the regions of Timbuktu and Gao: out of 4,632 offices, 644 could not vote. The Minister of Security to relativize, explaining that 644 polling stations out of 21,863, was very little.

First reaction after this day, that of the presidential party, the RPM of Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta. He notes that the vote has passed in calm and serenity. Some incidents are qualified as "minors" and are not likely to call into question the poll, according to the presidential camp.

The European mission dissatisfied

Another reaction, that of the international observers. The European Union mission held a press briefing at the end of the day on Sunday and it hit the table because it still had not received the list of municipalities where the vote could not take place. . " Yesterday the government made a gesture of opening we wish to see now the acts to join the word ", declared this Sunday evening Cécile Kyenge. The head of the European Union's observation mission reminded Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubèye Maïga of the promise made on Saturday. During the consultation meeting, he assured that all observers, national and international, could follow the process of centralizing results at all levels. But this centralization started on Sunday evening, once the polling stations finished the counting.

The government played the watch, invoking legal principles that allowed polling stations to remain open after 18h, in exceptional cases . And the government would violate the electoral law if it transmitted this list before the closing of the poll. Arguments that convinced only very moderately the observers. " It is a question of transparency, it is fundamental for the validity of the results ", added Cécile Kyenge

Compilation of the results

This Monday morning, each center should display its results. And now we have to centralize them. At the end of the counting, each polling station must send, by sealed mail, the minutes of the count. All envelopes will be grouped first by administrative circle. The results will be compiled by a commission made up of members of the administration, political parties and civil society.

It is probably this part of the process that will take the most time. Mali is more than a million square kilometers, the means of communication are bad, especially during this rainy season.

Once the results are centralized at the level of the circles, a new report is issued. on the other hand, still under seal, until Bamako, where the centralization will be carried out by another commission, composed according to the same distribution. Then the Ministry of Territorial Administration will pronounce the results.

The first, partial, are expected in about 48 hours. The government has five days after the vote to announce the final results.