Malians are preparing to vote in a runoff election that will occur this Sunday despite widespread allegations of fraud in the first round.
The current president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, won 41% of the vote in the first round on the 29th of July with Soumaila Cissé a distant second with 18%.
The pool of candidates has now been reduced from 24 to 2, and it is the first time an incumbent president ofMalii has ever had to face a runoff. Around 250,000 people, 3% of the electorate, were unable to vote because of insecurity in central and northern Mali.
Cissé had accused Keita of stuffing ballot boxes there. “The ballot box-stuffing explains ibk’s tallies in the north and centre,” a spokesman for cissé told afp when the complaint was filed, using the President’s initials as many do in Mali.
Malian soldiers stand guard at a polling station in Bamako, Mali, on 29th of July 2018.
