Conflicting Reports on Malian Elections
May 2, 2007

The official results are still being tabulated from the April 29 Presidential election in Mali but current President Amadou Toumani Toure appears to be the frontrunner, ahead of seven other candidates.  Reuters reports that the election process was “calm and orderly,” with election observers claiming that “aside from a few technical glitches the vote appeared to have gone smoothly.”  BBC News also found that “the election appeared to have gone smoothly with no reports of unrest.”  The International Herald Tribune reports that “the head of Mali’s independent electoral commission also said the election occurred ‘normally and without large incidents.’”

Although there seems to be agreement about the lack of violence and orderly fashion of the election, a statement released by the leaders of four opposition parties that says, “The presidential election of April 29 was anything but free, honest, and transparent.”  According to The Tribune opposition parties have said that they have “evidence of vote buying and of false ballots that were in circulation before the vote.”  Reuters reports that Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, Toure’s main rival, claims that “the military had been told to vote for Toure.”

Mali also is plagued with low voter turnout “due to high levels of illiteracy and the long distances that many rural voters have to walk to cast their ballots.” (Reuters)  The Tribune cites Mali’s Interior Minister who reported that “turnout was about 24 percent in Bamako [the capital city] and about 37 percent in other regions.”

CCD will update this story as events unfold.

Sources
http://www.sabcnews.com/africa/west_africa/0,2172,148180,00.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6606793.stm
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/01/africa/AF-POL-Mali-Elections.php