Mali's President, Ex-Finance Minister to Contest Runoff Vote
(Bloomberg) -- Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and a former finance minister will contest a runoff vote on Aug. 12 in the country's presidential elections after no candidate secured a majority in the first round.
Keita secured 41.4 percent of ballots cast in the July 29 election and his main opponent, Soumaila Cisse, obtained 17.8 percent, the Ministry of Territorial Administration said in a statement on Thursday. Turnout was 43 percent of the more than 8 million registered voters, according to the ministry.
“We are content to come out ahead,” Mahamadou Camara, Keita's spokesman, said by phone on Friday. “Now we need to convince the Malians who are still undecided to come out and vote in the second round.”
The 73-year-old Keita is seeking a second term after winning by a landslide against Cisse in 2013, months after a French military intervention pushed back Tuareg separatists and Islamist insurgents who had seized the north of the country. Five years on, a French military force that hunts down jihadists in the region hasn't been able to stop al-Qaeda-affiliated militants from killing scores of United Nations peacekeepers and Malian troops.
Read more: As Islamist insurgency deepens, Mali leader seeks new term
Cisse, 68, an ex-president of the West African Monetary Union Commission, said the results were not credible.
“These are the results of fraud,” Cisse said in a statement issued by his campaign on Friday. “They are the fruits of gross irregularities and deliberate violations of electoral law.”
Regional election observers said the vote proceeded on time and peacefully across most of the country, even though gunmen burned ballots and threatened members of the public and staff at some stations in the center and north. Voting didn't take place at 716 out of about 23,000 polling stations, according to a statement from the office of Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga.
The Constitutional Court has three days to validate the results.
To contact the reporters on this story: Katarina Hoije in Abidjan at khoije@bloomberg.net;Bram Posthumus in Accra at bposthumus@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net, Andre Janse van Vuuren, Karl Maier
©2018 Bloomberg L.P.
-
A New Samvat Wishlist: Inclusive Prosperity And Human Development
India has strengthened its economic foundations through infrastructure, digital access and enterprise. Its next growth chapter must deepen productivity, create better livelihoods and widen participation in prosperity.
-
Love, Sex Aur Dhokha: The Audacious Plot To Spy On Jensen Huang
A Taipei dinner, a Singapore chip buyer and a suspected Chinese asset: inside the alleged spy operation that got close to NVIDIA's Jensen Huang.
-
Ten Things I Learnt This Samvat
Patience can be a trap. Cheap stocks can stay cheap. Leverage can wipe you out. What did Samvat 2082 teach us? Niraj Shah writes on 10 lessons from the year gone by.
-
Talking Points This Week: Tech Nerves, FII Buying, And A Faraway Banking Shock
The global markets are not shining this Diwali. The exception in the large markets is, India.
-
Midterm Rally Lasted A Day. The Hard Reality Of A Divided US May Last Two Years | Opinion
Between a contested AI boom, a debt ceiling that arrives in 2027 and a president with every incentive to act alone, the next two years may prove more volatile than the first day's rally suggests.
-
Blue Wave Will Derail the AI Trade but Won't Dismantle the AI Era | Unhedged Position
The Democrats' sweep of the US Congress will see politics collide with economic forces both over the long and short term.
-
It's Time To Take The GST Council's Bet On Trust Global
Payment records can prove India's services exports, and clear, proportionate rules can bring foreign digital sellers into the tax net.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
-
Navigating Energy Crossroads: S Jaishankar's Call For Diversified Supply Chains At G20 Ministerial Meeting
As geopolitical fault lines continue to test maritime trade routes and commodity flows, Jaishankar's message remains pertinent: true economic resilience requires open markets, protected transit lines, and a genuine commitment to multilateral cooperation rather than coercion.
