Mali candidates allege fraud in election

Opposition candidates have called for an investigation into alleged voting fraud following Sunday's election.

Fifteen Malian opposition candidates have demanded the government investigate what they claim was fraud in Sunday's presidential election, which was beset by armed attacks and problems with the distribution of voting cards.

No election results have yet been published by Mali's Ministry of Territorial Administration, the only body that can legally do so.

But two rivals of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita already claim to have made it into a second round.

Keita's allies say he is well ahead in the poll, which two dozen people contested, but have not ruled out the possibility of a run-off if he does not get the required 51 per cent.

Soumaila Cisse, seen as the strongest challenger, and Aliou Diallo both say they have enough votes to face Keita in round two.

A statement from 16 candidates -- from which one later dissociated himself -- complained of a huge number of electoral cards being picked up by the wrong people, open vote buying, ballot box stuffing, fraudulent use of voter cards that were never picked up and unfair use of state media for Keita's campaign.

This was Mali's second presidential election since a 2012 coup enabled Tuareg rebels and allied Islamist fighters to take over the north, prompting French forces to intervene the following year to push them back.

Suspected Islamist gunmen have tried to disrupt the poll in the parts of north and central Mali where they hold sway.

Armed attackers shut down 644 polling stations, representing about three per cent of the total, on the day. A fifth of all polling stations suffered some kind of disruption, figures from the Ministry of Territorial Administration showed.

Gunmen attacked a convoy carrying election materials in central Mali late on Tuesday and four soldiers and eight of the assailants were killed, a defence ministry spokesman said.

European Union observers have raised issues about poor training of electoral officials and failure to follow the law in handing out ID cards.

Among opposition demands -- mirroring a similar call from the EU -- was that the government publish the names of all the polling stations in which insecurity prevented the vote from happening at all.


Share
2 min read

Published

Source: AAP


Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world