the “yes” wins massively, the opposition denounces “the worst ballot in history”

“Yes: 97%”, on the evening of Friday 23 June, Moustapha Cissé, the president of the Independent Election Management Authority (AIGE) announced the provisional results of the constitutional referendum held on 18 June. In Bamako, politicians, election observers and diplomats expected broad approval of the new draft constitution introduced by the Malian junta. But few were those who anticipated such a high result.

“ This score, worthy of North Korea, reveals the extent of the fraud that took place. It’s a disgrace to our country.” criticizes the executive of a political party who wished to remain anonymous. Like him, since the day of the vote, certain political or civil society organizations have denounced irregularities during this ballot, the very first organized by the junta, which came to power by two coups in August 2020 and May 2021.

The draft new Malian fundamental law strengthens the powers of the president, releases the putschists from any legal proceedings and could also allow the junta to present some of its members for the future presidential election scheduled for February 2024. Several civil society associations and political parties had called for a boycott of the referendum, starting with the Coordination of Movements, Associations and Sympathizers (CMAS) of Imam Mahmoud Dicko, whose influence contributed to bringing down former President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta known as “IBK” .

Questions about Kidal

“ The results of this referendum, which the current authorities did not have the legitimacy to organize anyway, are truly scandalous”, believes Youssouf Daba Diawara. For the general coordinator of CMAS, joined by The world, this ballot is a “act of disavowal” for the military in power, who “shows that the majority of the Malian people do not support their draft constitution”.

The participation rate announced by Moustapha Cissé, the president of the AIGE, is low: 39.4%. In a statement to the press in Bamako on June 23, the head of the Malian electoral body also affirmed that “the referendum vote was held throughout the territory… except for 1,121 polling stations (out of 24,416)”.

But its assessment contradicts the observations made on the ground by the two election observation bodies accredited by the authorities, the Mali Election Observation Mission (Model) and the Coalition for Citizen Observation of the Elections in Mali (Cocem). Starting with the participation rate, estimated at “about 28%” by the Model, based on observations made by its approximately 3,000 observers deployed throughout the country.

Contrary to the president of the AIGE, the Model and the Cocem also underlined this week that the vote could not have taken place on the whole of the territory. In a press release, both assured that no ballot could be organized in the Kidal region, an area in northern Mali which has escaped state control since the outbreak of war by a coalition of jihadist and separatist groups in 2012.

If Kidal does not weigh heavily in the electoral balance – barely 0.5% of total voters, whether or not the vote will be held in this region represents a major issue and has thus given rise, in recent days, to contradictory declarations. . “ If it were established that no vote could be held in the Kidal region, the entire ballot could be considered invalid, because the Constitution in force specifies that the entire people must be able to express themselves and that no procedure of constitutional revision can take place when the integrity of the territory is undermined”, points out an election observer.

Suspicions of manipulation

On election night, June 18, the broadcast of a video on state television showing the alleged organization of a vote in Aguelhok and Tessalit, two localities in the Kidal region, created controversy. On these blurred images, shot on a mobile phone, we can see a ballot box placed on the ground around which Malians with their faces hidden by turbans seem to be organizing a vote, seated on mats. “The referendum operations took place without incident” in these localities “as you can see in these images”, assures the presenter of the television news.

The next day, Mohamed ag Aljimite, the AIGE coordinator in Aguelhok, wrote that “ no voting material has been received by the AIGE of Aguelhok”, in a letter sent to Issouf Sylla, the regional coordinator of Kidal, consulted by The world. “A masquerade has been organized by people of bad will to organize a semblance of an election”, denounced the representative.

On the same day, Issouf Sylla confirmed in a second letter sent to the president of AIGE that the referendum had “could not be held in the entire Kidal region”. An assertion that the president of the electoral body hastened to contradict himself in a press release published on June 19, confirming on the contrary that the ballot had indeed “occurred in the region”.

Controversial electoral process

The composition of the AIGE has been controversial for months, both by critics of this referendum and by election observers. On March 16, Ibrahima Sangho, the Model’s head of mission, pointed out to the World that the AIGE was according to him “an institution won over to the cause of the military”, specifying that the President, Colonel Assimi Goïta, had “appointed ten of its fifteen members instead of the three provided for by law”.

To protest against the organization of this ballot, which they considered to be biased in advance, most of the former independence rebels and other militias, who control northern Mali, had called on voters to boycott the referendum. In a press release published on June 21, the body that brings them together, the Permanent Strategic Framework for Peace, Security and Development (CSP-PSD), denounced “the irregularities that have marred the entire process of this Constitution”, the lack of voting in Kidal as in the “almost all localities in the regions” North, “with the exception of the capitals of the regions and circles of the region of Gao, Timbuktu and Ménaka city, where the ballot boxes were stuffed without restraint”. And to his spokesperson, Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane to specify that “the CSP-PSD cannot recognize this text” new fundamental law.

The United Front Against the Referendum, a coalition of political parties and civil society organizations, has also denounced “many irregularities” during this referendum, described as “worst poll in the history of Mali ever organized” in a statement issued on June 20.

In parallel with these presumed frauds, denounced by the supporters of the no to the draft Constitution of the junta, “major incidents” enameled the vote and the counting in 21% of the polling stations observed by the Model. Its June 21 report mentions the non-functioning or closure of more than 90 polling stations due to insecurity in the north and center of the country. Electoral agents were also abducted by armed men in three localities, while the latter took away ballot boxes or burned them in ten other polling places.