The participants in the “Assises nationale de la refondation”, presented as the final phase of the consultations prior to the elections and the return of civilians to power in Mali, proposed Thursday in Bamako to extend the current transition from “six months to five year”.
Inability to develop an electoral calendar
Authors of successive coups d’état in August 2020 and May 2021, the military in power in Mali engaged under pressure from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and part of the international community, to hand over power to civilians after presidential and legislative elections initially scheduled for February 2022.
But the junta, led by Colonel Assimi Goïta, had finally informed ECOWAS that it was unable to meet the agreed timetable and had instructed the National Assizes to draw up an electoral calendar.
Assizes boycotted by many organizations
ECOWAS reiterated in mid-December its demand for elections on February 27 to return power to civilians and threatened the junta with new sanctions if the timetable was not kept.
“The participants voted for the extension of the transition in order to be able to carry out structural institutional reforms and allow credible, fair and transparent elections. The deadlines set vary from six months to five years”, indicates a document read at the end. of the Assizes, in the presence of Colonel Goïta.
Presented by the authorities as a crucial moment in the transition opened since the 2020 putsch, these Assises, which took place from Monday to Thursday in Bamako, were boycotted by many Malian organizations.
Strong tensions between the junta and France
These consultations are supposed to lead to recommendations for reforms intended to remedy the ills of the country caught in the turmoil since the outbreak of independence and jihadist insurgencies in 2012.
The participants in the Assises also recommended “to develop new military partnerships with military powers” and to “dissolve all the militias and integrate them into the Malian army”, indicates the final report.
Strong tensions oppose the junta to France, a former colonial power which recently decided to reorganize its system in the Sahel, and in particular in Mali, intended to fight the jihadist groups operating in the region.
Bamako recently denied any deployment on its territory of mercenaries from the sulphurous Russian paramilitary group Wagner, denounced by some fifteen Western powers involved in the anti-jihadist struggle in the Sahel.