The head of state Keita is considered the favorite | TIME ONLINE

Bamako (dpa) – The citizens of the West African crisis state Mali have chosen a new president under strict security measures. The vote was initially largely peaceful. However, there was a small participation rate.

According to observers, this was probably due to the fear of citizens being attacked by Islamist terrorist groups in polling stations. The first results of the elections will be announced towards the end of the week.

The approximately eight million eligible voters could choose between 24 candidates. The greatest opportunities were awarded to the outgoing head of state Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta (73), who is applying for a second term. However, he only has a bad record. The security situation has deteriorated during his tenure since 2013, he is also accused of corruption. The main challenger, the leader of the opposition Soumaïla Cissé (68), could, according to experts, obtain sufficient votes for a second round. It would take place in two weeks.

After voting in the capital Bamako Keïta declared that the peaceful election was a "victory for the Malian people" and a sign of the country's "democratic maturity". MEP Cécile Kyenge, head of the EU Election Observation Mission, said the inspectors had visited 44 polling stations where there were no significant irregularities.

The head of a local organization of election observers, Ibrahima Sangho, also said that there had been few major incidents. There have been isolated attacks on polling stations in the center of the country, where election workers have been injured, he added. The organization relies on a network of about 2000 election observers. Due to the volatile security situation in the north and in the center, however, in some places did not even vote – which, according to experts, undermines the credibility of the election.

The desert in northern Mali is the sanctuary of several Islamist terrorist organizations affiliated with Al Qaeda. These are gaining more and more influence in the most populated center of Mali. A UN peacekeeping mission of about 14,000 men, in which the [Bundeswehr] with about 1,000 soldiers, is involved, is trying to stabilize the country.

Achieving stability in Mali is also important for Germany: on the one hand, the state is a transit country for migrants, on the other hand if State would collapse, the North would be the ideal refuge for radical Islamists of all kinds. This is not an exaggeration: in 2012, Islamists affiliated with al Qaeda took power in the north of the country following a Tuareg uprising. Only through a French military intervention in 2013, Islamists were repulsed.

German soldiers are mainly stationed in northeastern Gao. For the Bundeswehr, the UN mission is right behind Afghanistan, the second largest foreign mission. It currently costs around 270 million euros a year. For development aid, however, receives from Germany since 2013, on average, only about 70 million euros per year.

In the opinion of many experts, however, Islamists can only be defeated effectively if the Malian state is strengthened. Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world. Nearly half of primary school children – about 1.2 million – do not go to school, according to the United Nations Children's Fund. Every ninth child dies before the fifth birthday (Germany: approximately every 250 years).