BAMAKO: The party of Mali’s president and its political allies have won a comfortable majority in a parliamentary election intended to seal to a return to democratic civilian rule following an army coup in March 2012.
Completion of the vote should unlock $3.25bn pledged by donors to rebuild Mali and develop the lawless desert north, where Islamists seized control in the aftermath of the coup.
France intervened militarily in January to drive Al Qaeda-linked fighters from northern towns, clearing the way for a presidential election won by Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.
In preliminary results for the parliamentary vote, Keita’s RPM party finished first after the second of two legs, securing 61 of a total of 147 seats in parliament, according to his chief of staff, Mahamadou Camara.
Adema, the RPM’s principal ally, finished second with 20 seats, according to Abdoulaye Maiga, a member of the party’s leadership, while smaller parties backing Keita also won seats.
The URD — the party of Soumaila Cisse, who lost the presidential runoff to Keita and is now positioning himself as the leading opposition figure — claimed 18 of a total of 24 seats for opposition parties, a party spokesman said.
Results by constituency were announced on state television by Minister of Territorial Administration Moussa Sinko Coulibaly but still need to be ratified by Mali’s constitutional court.
While the November 15 second round of voting saw none of the abuses, including ballot box theft, that marred the earlier first round, turnout was low.
Coulibaly said just over 37 percent of Mali’s 6.8 million registered voters participated in the polls, down from 38.5 percent in the first round. The first round of the presidential election in July saw record turnout of 49 percent.
While France’s military operation pushed the Islamists out of cities and towns, isolated cells have remained active and Mali has suffered a surge in Islamist violence since Keita was elected in an August runoff.
Reuters
