Mali’s new electoral law comes into effect to convince ECOWAS to lift sanctions for coup

June 25. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The official bulletin of the State of Mali has published this Saturday the decree of the president of the National Council of Transition and coup leader Assimi Goita by which the new electoral law of the country enters into force, a document considered essential for the continuation of the transition after the coup and, in particular, a possible lifting of the sanctions imposed against Mali by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

The law has generated great controversy in the country for including provisions such as those relating to the Independent Authority for the Management of Elections, of which three of the fifteen members will be appointed from now on by Goita himself, as well as the modification that attributes the technical preparation of the voting to the Ministry of Territorial Administration, reports Radio France Internationale (RFI).

In the middle of the month, the Goita military junta also approved the start of the commission in charge of drafting the country’s new Constitution, within the framework of the controversial transition process in the African country, rejected by interregional organizations due to its excessive duration.

This entire process is relatively pending the holding of the ECOWAS summit on July 3 to make any decision on whether to maintain or lift the severe trade and financial sanctions imposed on Mali on January 9 to urge the Bamako authorities to accelerate the transition process.

Goita led the coup against the then Malian president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, in August 2020, and subsequently led a second coup d’état in May 2021 against the transitional authorities – at which time he overthrew the president and prime minister, Bah Ndaw and Moctar Ouane–, rising to power.

ECOWAS has proposed a period of 12 to 18 months for the Malian coup plotters to hand over power to civilian authorities through new elections. The military junta hides behind the difficult security situation in the country, which it has left partially in the hands of the Russian Wagner group of mercenaries at the cost of the disappearance of the Western military forces represented in the anti-jihadist operation ‘Barkhane’ and ‘Takuba’.

The prime minister installed by the coup plotters, Choguel Kokalla Maiga, assured this Saturday that the discrepancy with the dates proposed by ECOWAS is not due to any “spirit of distrust”, according to statements collected by the Maliweb portal, but rather to “a temporary distancing” between postures.