Malian presidential election, 2013

Last updated
Malian presidential election, 2013
Flag of Mali.svg
  2007 28 July 2013 (first round)
11 August 2013 (second round)
2018  

  Ibrahim Boubacar Keita par Claude Truong-Ngoc decembre 2013 (cropped).jpg Soumaila Cisse 2013 Portrait.jpg
Nominee Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta Soumaïla Cissé
Party RPM URD
Popular vote2,354,693679,258
Percentage77.61%22.39%

President before election

Dioncounda Traoré
ADEMA-PASJ

President-elect

Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta
RPM

Coat of arms of Mali.svg
This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Mali

Presidential elections were held in Mali on 28 July 2013, with a second round run-off held on 11 August. [1] Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta defeated Soumaïla Cissé in the run-off to become the new President of Mali.

Mali republic in West Africa

Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa, a region geologically identified with the West African Craton. Mali is the eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of just over 1,240,000 square kilometres (480,000 sq mi). The population of Mali is 18 million. 67% of its population was estimated to be under the age of 25 in 2017. Its capital is Bamako. The sovereign state of Mali consists of eight regions and its borders on the north reach deep into the middle of the Sahara Desert, while the country's southern part, where the majority of inhabitants live, features the Niger and Senegal rivers. The country's economy centers on agriculture and mining. Some of Mali's prominent natural resources include gold, being the third largest producer of gold in the African continent, and salt.

Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta Malian Prime Minister

Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, or as he is often known, IBK, is a Malian politician who has been President of Mali since 2013. Previously he was Prime Minister of Mali from 1994 to 2000 and President of the National Assembly of Mali from 2002 to 2007. He founded a political party, Rally for Mali (RPM), in 2001. He was elected as President in the July–August 2013 presidential election and sworn in on 4 September 2013.

Soumaïla Cissé Malian politician

Soumaïla Cissé is a Malian politician who served in the government of Mali as Minister of Finance from 1993 to 2000. He thrice stood unsuccessfully as a presidential candidate, in 2002, 2013 and 2018; on both occasions he was defeated in a second round of voting. Since 2014 he has been President of the Union for the Republic and Democracy, a political party.

Contents

Background

According to the 1992 constitution, elections should have taken place in 2012. The first round was originally scheduled for 29 April, and the second round scheduled for 13 May. The first round was also planned to include a referendum on revising the constitution. [2]

Constitution of Mali

The 1992 Constitution of Mali was approved by a referendum on 12 January 1992 after being drawn up by a national conference in August 1991. The constitution provides for multi party democracy within a semi-presidential system.

The elections would have marked the end of the second term of office of President Amadou Toumani Touré, conforming to the Malian constitution which limits individuals to two presidential terms. Touré confirmed, at a press conference on 12 June 2011, that he would not stand for election again. [3]

Amadou Toumani Touré Malian soldier and politician

Amadou Toumani Touré is a Malian politician who was President of Mali from 2002 to 2012.

Insurgency and coup d'etat

In 2012, Tuareg and other peoples in northern Mali's Azawad region started an insurgency in the north under the banner of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad. The Malian Army complained that it was ill-equipped to fight the insurgents, who had benefited from an influx of heavy weaponry from the 2011 Libyan civil war as well as other sources. On 21 March 2012 elements of the army staged a military coup d'état and formed the National Committee for the Restoration of Democracy and State. The scheduled elections were then called into question after coup leaders suspended the constitution and arrested government ministers, while promising that, at some time in the future, elections would be held to return governance to civilian control. [4] Following the coup, the rebels made further advances to capture the three biggest cities in the north. On 1 April 2012, under pressure from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the leader of the junta Captain Amadou Sanogo announced that the constitution would be restored. [5]

Azawad territory situated in northern Mali

Azawad is the name given to northern Mali by Berber Touareg rebels, as well as a former short-lived unrecognised state. Its independence was declared unilaterally by the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) in 2012, after a Tuareg rebellion drove the Malian Army from the region. It rejoined Mali in February 2013, after less than a year of unrecognized independence.

National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad Azawad movement

The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad or the Azawad National Liberation Movement, formerly the National Movement of Azawad, is a political and military organisation based in Azawad in northern Mali.

2012 Malian coup détat Coup détat against the Tuareg rebellion of 2012

The 2012 Malian coup d'état began on 21 March that year, when mutinying Malian soldiers, displeased with the management of the Tuareg rebellion, attacked several locations in the capital Bamako, including the presidential palace, state television, and military barracks. The soldiers, who said they had formed the National Committee for the Restoration of Democracy and State, declared the following day that they had overthrown the government of Amadou Toumani Touré, forcing him into hiding. The coup was followed by "unanimous" international condemnation, harsh sanctions by Mali's neighbors, and the swift loss of northern Mali to Tuareg forces, leading Reuters to describe the coup as "a spectacular own-goal". On 6 April, the junta agreed with Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) negotiators that they would step down from power in return for the end of sanctions, giving power to a transitional government led by parliament speaker Dioncounda Traoré. In the following days, both Touré and coup leader Amadou Sanogo formally resigned; however, as of 16 May, the junta was still "widely thought to have maintained overall control". On 3 December 2013, a mass grave was discovered in Diago holding the remains of 21 soldiers that went missing the year before, loyal to the ousted president.

Following economic sanctions and a blockade by ECOWAS on the country, a deal brokered in Burkina Faso by President Blaise Compaoré under the auspices of ECOWAS, was signed that saw Sanogo cede power to Dioncounda Traoré to assume the presidency in an interim capacity until the election was held. [6]

Burkina Faso country in Africa

Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa. It covers an area of around 274,200 square kilometres (105,900 sq mi) and is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north; Niger to the east; Benin to the southeast; Togo and Ghana to the south; and Ivory Coast to the southwest. The July 2018 population estimate by the United Nations was 19,751,651. Burkina Faso is a francophone country, with French as the official language of government and business. Roughly 40% of the population speaks the Mossi language. Formerly called the Republic of Upper Volta (1958–1984), the country was renamed "Burkina Faso" on 4 August 1984 by then-President Thomas Sankara. Its citizens are known as Burkinabé. Its capital is Ouagadougou.

Blaise Compaoré Burkinabé politician, President of Burkina Faso from 1987 to 2014

Blaise Compaoré is a Burkinabé politician who was president of Burkina Faso from 1987 to 2014. He was a top associate of President Thomas Sankara during the 1980s, and in October 1987, he led a coup d'état during which Sankara was killed. Subsequently, he introduced a policy of "rectification", overturning the leftist and Third Worldist policies pursued by Sankara. He won elections in 1991, 1998, 2005, and 2010 in what were considered unfair circumstances. His attempt to amend the constitution to extend his 27-year term caused the 2014 Burkinabé uprising. On 31 October 2014, Compaoré resigned, whereupon he fled to the Ivory Coast.

Dioncounda Traoré President of Mali

Dioncounda Traoré is a Malian politician who was President of Mali in an interim capacity from April 2012 to September 2013. Previously he was President of the National Assembly of Mali from 2007 to 2012, and he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1994 to 1997. He was President of the Alliance for Democracy in Mali-African Party for Solidarity and Justice (ADEMA-PASJ) beginning in 2000, and he was also President of the Alliance for Democracy and Progress (ADP), an alliance of parties that supported the re-election of President Amadou Toumani Touré in 2007.

On 1 July 2013, 6,000 of a future total of 12,600 UN peacekeeping troops officially took over responsibility for patrolling the country's north from France and the ECOWAS' International Support Mission to Mali (AFISMA). The force would be led by former second-in-command in Darfur, Rwandan General Jean Bosco Kazura, and will be known as the MINUSMA. Though the group was expected to play a role in the election, the electoral commission's president, Mamadou Diamountani, said it would be "extremely difficult" to arrange for up to eight million voting identification cards when there were 500,000 displaced people as a result of the conflict. [7]

Darfur region of Sudan

Darfur is a region in western Sudan. Dar is an Arabic word meaning home of - the region was named Dardaju while ruled by the Daju, who migrated from Meroë c. 350 AD, and it was then renamed Dartunjur when the Tunjur ruled the area. Darfur was an independent sultanate for several hundred years, incorporated into Sudan by Anglo-Egyptian forces in 1916. The region is divided into five federal states: Central Darfur, East Darfur, North Darfur, South Darfur and West Darfur. Because of the war in Darfur between Sudanese government forces and the indigenous population, the region has been in a state of humanitarian emergency since 2003.

Rwanda Country in Africa

Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a country in Central and East Africa and one of the smallest countries on the African mainland. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Rwanda is in the African Great Lakes region and is highly elevated; its geography is dominated by mountains in the west and savanna to the east, with numerous lakes throughout the country. The climate is temperate to subtropical, with two rainy seasons and two dry seasons each year.

Jean Bosco Kazura Rwandan general

Jean Bosco Kazura is a Rwandan Major General, and former head of the Rwandan Football Federation.

Electoral organisation controversies

To improve the electoral process, the government decided to use the election process of the Administrative Census to Elections (RACE) to further direct the Minister of Territorial Administration and Local Government and the General Administrator of Elections, General Kafougona Kone. [8] The majority of political parties would prefer the use of another electoral system under the Administrative Census Vocation of Civil Status (RAVEC), an electoral process considered more reliable. However, the government considers that this second process with RAVEC presents a number of difficulties with identification of non-Malians living in the Côte d'Ivoire and there are a large number of corrections to be made in a very short time. [9]

The cost of using this other process is estimated at 41 billion West African CFA francs (nearly $83 million US dollars). [10] At a meeting between the government and political parties on 3 January 2012, the National Director of the Interior, to the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Local Government, Bassidi Coulibaly, acknowledged the weak influence of citizens for revision of the electoral lists. [11]

Just as campaigning was about to get under way, the Malian government lifted the state of emergency in place in the country since the northern battles. [12]

Although the jihadist group MUJAO warned people not to vote and threatened to attack polling stations, no violence occurred during the elections. [13]

Candidates

Several candidates declared their intention to run for the original elections or were invested by their party.

Results

CandidatePartyFirst roundSecond round
Votes%Votes%
Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta Rally for Mali 1,222,65739.232,354,69377.61
Soumaïla Cissé Union for the Republic and Democracy 605,90119.44679,25822.39
Dramane Dembélé Alliance for Democracy in Mali 298,7489.59
Modibo Sidibé Alternative Forces for Renewal and Emergence 151,8014.87
Housseini Amion Guindo Convergence for the Development of Mali 144,3364.63
Oumar Mariko African Solidarity for Democracy and Independence 74,7062.40
Choguel Kokalla Maïga Patriotic Movement for Renewal 71,4582.29
Cheick Modibo Diarra Rally for Development of Mali64,8292.08
Jamille Bittar Party for Economic Development and Solidarity 54,5301.74
Mountaga Tall National Congress for Democratic Initiative 47,4051.52
Moussa Mara Change Party 46,8691.50
Mamadou Blaise Sangare Social Democratic Convention 32,9511.06
Soumana Sacko National Convention for a United Africa27,2100.87
Oumar Ibrahim TouréAlliance for the Republic25,6100.82
Haïdara Aïchata Alassane CisséChato Alliance 201323,6220.76
Yeah Samake Party for Civic and Patriotic Action 17,4640.56
Hamed SowWorkers' Rally for Development17,4170.56
Konimba SidibeCitizen's Duty Movement17,2170.55
Racine Seydou ThiamCAP16,6200.53
Ousmane Ben Traoré Citizens' Party for Revival 16,1420.52
Oumar Boury TouréGAD16,0220.51
Cheick KeitaUnion for Democracy and Alternation15,1560.49
Siaka DiarraUnion of Democratic Forces14,7490.47
Youssouf CisséIndependent12,8590.41
Cheick Boucadry TraoréAfrican Convergence for Renewal9,4320.30
Sibiri KoumareSynergy of the Initiatives for an African Rebirth9,1690.29
Oumar Alhousseini MaigaPanafrik8,5710.28
Tiebilé Drame Party for National Rebirth 5,9190.19
Invalid/blank votes403,53292,920
Total3,520,2421003,126,521100
Registered voters/turnout6,829,69651.546,829,69645.78
Source: Government of Mali, (1st round), (2nd round)

On 3 August 2013, ADEMA candidate Dramane Dembélé, who placed third in the election, announced his support for Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in the second round, saying that "we are in the Socialist International, we share the same values". However, in endorsing Keita he contradicted the official stance of ADEMA, which had backed Keita's rival, Soumaïla Cissé, on the previous day. The party stressed that Dembélé was speaking only for himself and that the party still supported Cissé. [29]

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