Africa
MALIAN voters took their time in coming out on Sunday to cast their ballots in a presidential election which many are pinning their hope to steer the divided country on the path of stability.
Six years of Tuareg separatist insurrection and attacks by Islamic jihadist groups have denied the Bamako government control of Mali’s northern and central regions.
On Sunday, Bamako district and the southern region of Sikasso reported generally peaceful exercise but with few voters at the polling stations before the official opening of balloting by 8 am.
Citizens, including traders and artisans
went about their normal businesses, while petty traders made brisk sales of water, soft drink, food items and provisions near the polling stations.
Farmers also reportedly went to their farms, with the hope of returning to vote before the close of balloting at 6pm.
Adama Traore, the first voter at the Bougouni Faraba secondary school polling station cast his ballot at 8 10am, while the sixth voter, 66-year-old Mrs Sangare Gniging voted by 8.30 am. The station has 465 registered voters (239 men and 226 women).
Bougouni, one of the administrative sub-divisions in Sikasso is some 170-km from Bamako. At polling centre 001 in Foulaboula, some 30-minutes’ drive from Bougouni, 54 of the 357 registered voters had cast their ballots by 12.18pm. Polling officials were in place from the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, which is managing the election according the constitutional provisions.
Security agents were also at the polling stations in urban centres, but not in most rural areas.
Some polling agents were initially refusing some political party agents entry into polling centres, but to ensure transparency, the Bougouni Precture officials had to issue an instruction to allow a naximum of two agents per party to observe polling with or without the letter signed by the Prefect.
In Yanfolila, more than 272-km south of Bamako, on Mali’s border with Cote d’Ivoire, low voter turn-out was also reported, such that by 2.06 pm, the central Wassoulou-Balle polling station with 459 registered voters, recorded only 96 voters that had cast their ballots.
Only the major political parties such as the ruling RDM and opposition parties URD and ADP, were represented at most the polling stations.
Citizen observers including those from the Pool of National Observers, POCIM, which has deployed more than 1,700 observers and Caritas Mali, were also represented at the polling centres, as were the Constitutional Court and the independent national electoral commission, CENI, which is charged with supervision of the electoral process.
ECOWAS has 171 Long-term and Short-term observers on ground headed by Amb. Kadre Desire Ouedraogo, former ECOWAS Commission president.
Other international observers include thosr from the EU and AU.
Some 8 million Malian voters are casting their ballots in 23,041 polling stations nationwide on Sunday to choose a president from among 24 candidates, including incumbent leader Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, 73, who is seeking a second five-year mandate and the only woman contestant Madam Djeneba N’diaye.
Keita of RDM and Soumaila Cisse of the main opposition UDR are considered the front-runners. To win Mali’s presidency in the first round a candidate is required to obtain 50% +I vote, otherwise the two frontrunners will go into a run-off vote.
– July 29, 2018 @ 9:00 GMT /
Tags: Mali Presidential Vote Off to a Slow Start
