Malians began voting on a draft new constitution on Sunday, the first vote since the junta took office three years ago, an AFP correspondent in Bamako noted.
Many voters were already there under cloudy skies before the polling station at Mamadou Goundo Simaga school opened at 8:00 am (local time and GMT), under the supervision of the security forces.
Then, in the polling booth, early voters began choosing between a white ballot for yes and a red one for no, out of sight of officials, representatives of the two camps and some national observers, before casting their ballot in a see-through ballot box.
Some 8.4 million Malians are called to vote in a ballot contested by a ragtag opposition and causing continued insecurity in several regions.
Among the changes proposed by the junta from the 1992 constitution, voters will decide whether or not to accept an increase in presidential powers at the helm of this country facing the spread of jihadists and a multidimensional crisis: security, Political, economic, humanitarian.
AFP
This acceptance is one of the focal points of the consultation. Critics of the project describe it as tailor-made to keep the military in power beyond the February 2024 presidential election, despite originally pledging to hand over the site to civilians after the election.
Results are expected within 72 hours.
The victory of the yes seems won. But the scale is under scrutiny, such as turnout, albeit traditionally low, and the conditions for holding the vote.
In an environment that is difficult to decipher due to the opacity of the system and restrictions on expression, the vote could provide cautious clues as to popular support for the junta and its leader, the famous MP, Colonel Assimi Goïta, as well as the inner situation.
The soldiers who violently seized power in 2020 and are wielding it without sharing a claim to pushing back the jihadists on the ground. The vote comes less than 48 hours after Bamako’s overwhelming furlough from the UN mission after a ten-year presence. The authorities assume that the mission has failed and that Mali can ensure its security “from its own resources”.
“strong state”
However, it is expected that the ongoing uncertainty will result in voting bans in much of the country. Wherever it happens, offices are always under attack.
To the north, in places they control, including Kidal Fortress, the former rebels who signed a fragile peace should prevent a vote on a project they say they can’t find the deal signed in 2015.
They are part of an opposition to the project that, despite its heterogeneity, has managed to make itself heard. The protest culminated on Friday with a meeting of those opposed to maintaining the principle of secularism.
One of its leaders, the influential Imam Mahmoud Dicko, leader of the movement that led to the overthrow of the president-elect in 2020, delivered a violent diatribe against the constitutional project and against the junta. He protested against a “secularism in whose name the Koran is trampled under foot” and against a junta that “seized the popular revolution of 2020”.
AFP
The authorities have invested heavily in this reform, which aims to compensate for the shortcomings of the 1992 constitution, which are often cited as a factor in the state’s failure in the face of a multitude of challenges: the propagation of jihadism, poverty, the ruin of infrastructure or the decay of schools .
The proposed constitution gives high priority to the armed forces. It looks at “sovereignty,” the junta’s mantra since its inception, and then the break with former French dominance and the fight against the corruption associated with the old regime.
It is characterized primarily by strengthening the powers of the President. It provides for an amnesty for putschists before its promulgation and fuels ongoing speculation that Colonel Goïta could run for the presidency.
In a closing speech on Friday, Colonel Goïta urged his fellow citizens to vote “massively” for the project, which he portrayed as guaranteeing a “strong state”, “democratic governance” and “renewed trust” by Malians in the authorities.