Mali: Several political parties demand elections timeline from ruling junta

More than 80 political parties in Mali have demanded a timeline for presidential polls after the ruling junta failed to hold elections within the promised 24-month transition to democracy.

Mali has been under military administration since August 2020, the first of eight coups in West and Central Africa in four years, including those in neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.

Regional blocs have attempted to negotiate transitions with no positive responses from the interim government.

The Network of Human Rights Defenders in Mali (RDDHM), which brings together 50 local organisations, also appealed to the junta to hold elections as soon as possible.

The group said, “The country is going through enormous difficulty, and the transition is not intended to resolve all the country’s problems. It is time to end this impasse, especially since the last postponement of the transition expired on March 26,” said RDDHM’s president, Souleymane Camara, who called for a return to “constitutional order.”

Mali’s current junta gained power in a second 2021 coup and later pledged to reinstate democratic rule in 24 months, beginning March 26, 2024, with elections in February.

It passed a new electoral law in June 2022, but announced in September last year that the February elections would be postponed for technical reasons, causing fury among political parties.

Many protested again after last month’s transition date passed without a vote.