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PRESIDENTIAL MALI: The counting of votes began in Mali

 

The last polling stations closed Bamako Sunday, July 28 to 22 hours, after a presidential election meant to restore some stability after sixteen months of political and military crisis.

The counting began and preliminary results are expected Tuesday. Independent national observers noted "a great mobilization of voters," especially in the South where Bamako. A second round will take place on August 11 if no candidate passes the 50% of votes.

On Sunday evening, the first results collected by Malian journalists in polling stations across the country gave a clear advantage to one of the favorites, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, IBK said.  

"IBK, the man we need" When information - unofficial results - were broadcast by local radio stations, thousands of supporters of IBK went to headquarters of his party, the Rally for Mali (RPM) and his home in Bamako, overjoyed. All chanted "IBK, the man we need." "It is the people who spoke!" Shouted one of them. Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, a former prime minister, cacique of the Malian political life is one of the two favorites of the vote with Soumaila Cisse, 63, former finance minister and ex-president of the Commission West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU).

After voting in Bamako, surrounded by a cohort of followers, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said that after the election, "only Mali will win" to "forget nightmare "that he had to live. "Today, we must turn the page," he said of his side Soumaila Cisse by voting in the capital. "We must return to the quiet of republican institutions."

"Best elections since 1960"

The acting president, Traore, who did not attend, said by voting that it was "the best vote" that Mali has organized since its independence France in 1960.

With this election, Mali hopes to turn the page of the coup in March 2012 and the occupation of the north of the country by Islamist radicals, which ended with the intervention of the armed , French e in January.

(With headlines)