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Mali opposition leader rejects results as counting underway

By Clément SABOURIN
Mali Malian Opposition leader and presidential candidate Soumaila Cisse was greeted by supporters on Monday as he arrived at his campaign headquarters.  By ISSOUF SANOGO AFP
AUG 13, 2018 LISTEN
Malian Opposition leader and presidential candidate Soumaila Cisse was greeted by supporters on Monday as he arrived at his campaign headquarters. By ISSOUF SANOGO (AFP)

Malian opposition candidate Soumaila Cisse said on Monday he would reject the results of a presidential runoff marred by accusations of fraud, violence and low turnout, calling on the population "to rise up."

Ballot counting was underway on Monday across the vast West African country after a vote which saw one poll worker killed and hundreds of stations closed due to insecurity.

"The fraud is proven, this is why there are results we will not accept," Cisse said at his party's headquarters in Bamako.

"I call on all Malians to rise up... We will not accept the dictatorship of fraud," he added.

President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, 73, is the clear frontrunner in a reprise of his 2013 faceoff against former finance minister Cisse, 68.

But Cisse's team and other opposition contenders have repeatedly accused the government of fraud, including ballot-box stuffing and vote buying.

Nearly 500 polling stations were unable to open on Sunday, the government said, mostly in regions plagued by jihadist violence and ethnic tension.

"We had a little over 3.7 percent of stations which had not functioned properly" during the first round on July 29, Salif Traore, Mali's security minister, said on Monday.

Supporters of Malian opposition leader and presidential candidate Soumaila Cisse hold posters reading Together, let's restore hope.  By ISSOUF SANOGO AFP Supporters of Malian opposition leader and presidential candidate Soumaila Cisse hold posters reading "Together, let's restore hope". By ISSOUF SANOGO (AFP)

The figure fell to 2.1 percent of the 23,000 polling booths in Sunday's runoff vote, which Traore said was due to the deployment of 36,000 Malian military, a 20 percent increase on the first round.

In a reminder of the jihadist threat that was a major campaign issue, the overseer of a polling station in Arkodia, in the northern region of Timbuktu, was shot dead on Sunday by armed Islamist militants, local officials said.

Aside from this "dramatic case," the government said the poll has occurred without incidents.

The European Union also said in 300 polling stations its observers visited, no "major incident" occurred. The EU observers' mission deployed monitors in the northern town of Gao, but not in Timbuktu or Kidal, also in the north, or to Mopti in the centre.

Turnout was just 22.38 percent, local monitors of the POCIM (the Mali Citizen Observation Pool) said.

Fraud allegations

Salif Traore, Mali's security minister said hundreds of polling stations were unable to open on Sunday.  By ISSOUF SANOGO AFP Salif Traore, Mali's security minister said hundreds of polling stations were unable to open on Sunday. By ISSOUF SANOGO (AFP)

In the first-round vote on July 29, Keita was clearly ahead, with 42 percent against 18 percent for Cisse.

Despite fierce criticism of Keita for his handling of the security crisis, Cisse failed to rally the support of other parties behind him for the runoff, leaving the incumbent seemingly on track for a second consecutive landslide.

Results are expected by mid-week at the earliest.

The three main opposition candidates had mounted a last-ditch legal challenge to the first-round result, alleging ballot-box stuffing and other irregularities.

But their petition was rejected by the Constitutional Court.

Cisse's party told AFP in the early hours of Sunday that ballot papers were already circulating, several hours before polls opened.

A girl poses with a metal bowl over her head on the sidelines of a protest against incumbent Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in Bamako.  By Michele CATTANI AFP A girl poses with a metal bowl over her head on the sidelines of a protest against incumbent Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in Bamako. By Michele CATTANI (AFP)

In at least six stations in the capital of Bamako, voting reports -- which give the number of voters and votes cast for each candidate -- were signed before the numbers were filled in, an AFP journalist witnessed.

The opposition leader, in a meeting where hundreds of supporters had gathered on Monday afternoon, also said the programme his party uses to count votes -- which had put him in the lead until then -- was hacked overnight.

Six members of his campaign team, including four French, were arrested on Sunday, the team and Traore, the minister of security, said.

Five of the six were released without charges after being held for two hours in a Bamako police station, a source close to the team said. Their phones and laptops were seized.

Violence

Map of Mali showing its main ethnic groups, refugees and conflict zones as voters to the polls Sunday in the second round of presdiential elections..  By William ICKES AFP Map of Mali showing its main ethnic groups, refugees and conflict zones as voters to the polls Sunday in the second round of presdiential elections.. By William ICKES (AFP)

Mali, a landlocked nation home to at least 20 ethnic groups where the majority of people live on less than $2 a day, has battled jihadist attacks and intercommunal violence for years.

Beyond its borders, the international community hope that the winner will consolidate a 2015 accord that the fragile Sahel state sees as its foundation for peace.

The deal brought together the government, government-allied groups and former Tuareg rebels.

But jihadist violence has spread from the north to the centre and south of the vast country and spilled into neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger, often inflaming communal conflicts.

A state of emergency heads into its fourth year in November.

France still has 4,500 troops deployed alongside the UN's 15,000 peacekeepers and a regional G5 Sahel force, aimed at rooting out jihadists and restoring the authority of the state.

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