Mali’s Keita Holds Significant Lead in Presidential Poll
Bloomberg News
By Francois Rihouay
Former Malian Prime Minister Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has a “significant” lead over his rivals with a third of the ballots counted from the July 28 presidential election, a government minister said.
If that gap is confirmed, there would be no need for a run-off vote, Moussa Sinko Coulibaly, minister of territorial administration, told reporters in the capital, Bamako yesterday. Coulibaly has until Aug. 2 to send the preliminary results to the constitutional court, which will publish them.
Mali’s first presidential election since an army coup and a French military offensive against rebels in the north won praise from foreign monitors including the European Union and the International Republican Institute. Donors deemed the vote necessary before they can resume aid to the West African nation, the continent’s third-biggest gold producer.
Keita, 68, leads Soumaila Cisse, a 63-year-old former commission chairman of the West African Monetary Union, and Dramane Dembele, Coulibaly said.
The 27-candidate race took place following more than a year of strife after an ethnic-Touareg uprising in the north prompted a group of soldiers to overthrow the government. French and African forces intervened to restore order after the Touaregs joined Islamist militants in an offensive that almost split the nation in half.
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