Mali’s Prime Minister Says Elections Could Be Postponed

Mali’s Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla Maiga says Elections scheduled for the country early next year could be postponed by months and that he was looking for alternative security partners to France as it prepares to reduce its troop presence in the conflict-torn country.

Speaking in an interview in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly Maiga said the primary focus was to hold elections that will not be contested.

He suggested the presidential and legislative elections could be postponed by “two weeks, two months, a few months,” adding that a decision will be taken in October following a meeting of a national forum.

The elections, promised for February 2022 by strongman Colonel Assimi Goita, are aimed at restoring civilian rule following a coup in August last year against elected president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

The military then appointed an interim civilian government tasked with steering back to democratic rule.

But Goita deposed the civilian leaders of the interim government in May — in a second coup — and was later declared president himself.

He has pledged to respect the February deadline for civilian elections set by the interim government, which also set October 31 as a date for holding a constitutional referendum.

The calendar for the elections “was fixed on the requirements of ECOWAS without posing questions about what practical steps must be taken to get there,” said Maiga.

Asked about UN criticism at the slow speed of the peace and reconciliation agreement signed with rebels in 2015, Maiga promised that the state “continues to respect it.”