An international digital rights group is reporting that authorities in Mali have restricted internet access on the eve of a presidential run-off vote.
According to France-based Internet Without Borders, the capacity of the internet had technically been restricted to prevent the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPN) and social networks.
The group referred to a map by the Internet Intelligence body, confirming that connectivity across the West African nation had been tampered with.
Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita enters a run-off with main opposition candidate Soumaila Cisse after the incumbent failed to win the first round in polls of July 29.
Keita won 41 percent of the votes in the first round against arch-rival Cisse who got just under 18 percent. By law, since there was no outright winner, the top two candidates enter a run-off vote.
Speaking ahead of the vote, a confident Keita said: “Some people were sceptical about these elections and some asked me to turn them down. They even asked me to go for a transition because they wanted a piece of the cake obviously.
