{"id":38153,"date":"2018-07-27T03:27:59","date_gmt":"2018-07-27T01:27:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/38153-mali-holds-key-polls-overshadowed-by-jihadist-violence.html"},"modified":"2018-07-27T03:27:59","modified_gmt":"2018-07-27T01:27:59","slug":"mali-holds-key-polls-overshadowed-by-jihadist-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/38153-mali-holds-key-polls-overshadowed-by-jihadist-violence.html","title":{"rendered":"Mali holds key polls overshadowed by jihadist violence"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"txt-textContent\">\n<div class=\"text fontsize_0 jq_Content jq_langdir\">\n<p>Mali holds crucial polls on Sunday with President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita seeking re-election in a country reeling from jihadist violence and ethnic attacks.<\/p>\n<p>The international community hopes the poll will strengthen a 2015 accord that Mali, a linchpin state in the troubled Sahel region, sees as its cornerstone for peace.<\/p>\n<p>But violence has peppered the election, with the final days of campaigning marred by an attack on a candidate's convoy and renewed killings of civilians.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the peace deal, which gathers the government, government-allied groups and former Tuareg rebels, a state of emergency remains in force and heads into its fourth year in November.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Jihadist violence, meanwhile, has spread from northern Mali to the centre and south and spilled into neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger, often exacerbating communal conflicts.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>- 'No more war-mongering' -<\/h2>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Twenty-four candidates are in the race for the presidency, and over eight million people are eligible to vote.<\/p>\n<p>Keita, elected in 2013, is accused by his opponents, including several former ministers, of poor governance and security failures. Nearly 300 civilians have died in ethnic clashes this year alone.<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday, at least three Fulani civilians were killed in central Mali in an attack by\u00a0suspected traditional hunters, according to civil society and security sources.<\/p>\n<p>The Fulani community regularly denounces abuses against them by Bambara and Dogon farmers in the fight against jihadists, accusing authorities of ignoring or even taking part in them.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to journalists on Tuesday, Keita, 73, defended his record and branded the attacks as \"pockets of violence and remnants of terrorism\".<\/p>\n<p>\"There's no more war-mongering in Mali today,\" Keita said.<\/p>\n<p>He acknowledged that the violence had \"metastasised to central Mali\", but said the state was making a \"colossal financial effort\" to combat it.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>- Rivals -<\/h2>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Keita's challengers are headed by Soumaila Cisse, a former finance and economy minister, who lost by a large margin in the second round of the 2013 election.<\/p>\n<p>Others are Modibo Kone, a rural development expert at the West African Development Bank, and Hamadoun Toure, who runs the \"Smart Africa\" initiative to drive development on the continent via technology.<\/p>\n<p>Another candidate, businessman Aliou Boubacar Diallo, said IBK had \"failed miserably\". Diallo's convoy was attacked by armed assailants while he was campaigning.<\/p>\n<p>\"Everywhere we have been, it is this insecurity which tops Malians' concerns,\" Diallo said.<\/p>\n<p>Other contenders include astrophysicist and former prime minister Cheick Modibo Diarra. There is only one female candidate -- Djeneba Ndiaye, a 55-year-old businesswoman.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>- Fraud claims -<\/h2>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Amid concerns that the vote could not be held in some restive parts of the country, over 30,000 security personnel have been commandeered to ensure security.<\/p>\n<p>In the north, where the state is largely absent, armed groups who signed the peace agreement have also been roped in.<\/p>\n<p>The campaign unfolded amid tight security and marked by a controversy over the electoral roll -- with the opposition warning of possible fraud.<\/p>\n<p>Cisse's team claimed there were two electoral lists and hundreds of fake polling stations listed.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The European Union is expected to deploy around 100 observers on Sunday.\u00a0Its chief observer, Italian Euro-MP Cecile Kyenge, called on Wednesday for \"more transparency\" and access for all observers, including 3,000 Malians.<\/p>\n<p>Turnout is traditionally low in Mali during the first round of voting, hovering around 50 percent.<\/p>\n<p>If Keita -- widely known as IBK -- or any of his contenders fail to secure more than half of the ballots, a second round will take place on August 12.<\/p>\n<p>The first results are expected within 48 hours of the vote, with official results following on August 3 at the latest.<\/p>\n<p>bur-sst\/siu\/jpc\/plh\/apm\/ach-ri\/kaf<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mali holds crucial polls on Sunday with President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita seeking re-election in a country reeling from jihadist violence and ethnic attacks. The international community hopes the poll will strengthen a 2015 accord that Mali, a linchpin state in the troubled Sahel region, sees as its cornerstone for peace. But violence has peppered the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[2339],"class_list":["post-38153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed","ji_location-mali"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.3.1 (Yoast SEO v25.3.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mali holds key polls overshadowed by jihadist violence - JusticeInfo.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/38153-mali-holds-key-polls-overshadowed-by-jihadist-violence.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mali holds key polls overshadowed by jihadist violence\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mali holds crucial polls on Sunday with President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita seeking re-election in a country reeling from jihadist violence and ethnic attacks. 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