President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita wins re-election in Mali against opposition rival Soumaila Cisse. The victory hands Keita a second five-year term in the West African country where militant violence and claims of fraud by the opposition stained the poll.
President Keita’s new term comes with a lot of expectation, nationally and international as he now faces the giant task of lifting Mali out of a political instability caused by the Islamist and ethnic violence in the center and north where attacks worsened in the months leading up to the vote despite the presence of U.N. and French troops.
Threats by jihadist militants forced nearly 500 polling stations – about two percent of the total – to stay closed during Sunday’s run-off, which muted about 37 percent of the electorate, the government said. One election official was killed in northern Niafunke, in Timbuktu region.
Cisse has accused the Keita’s campaign of electoral fraud to secure the win, accusations Keita denies.
Maikem Emmanuela Manzie
