POLITICS-MALI: New President to Take over in June

By Almahady Cissé Reprint | | Print |

Almahady Cisse

BAMAKO, May 22 2002 (IPS) - Toumani Toure, 53, a retired army general, will succeed Alpha Oumar Konare as Mali’s new President on June 8.

Amadou Toumani Toure, popularly known as ATT, won the second round of the May 12 presidential elections with 64.35 percent of the vote against the 35.67 percent garnered by his opponent, Soumaila Cisse, according to provisional results announced in Bamako, the country’s capital, last week.

The results, made public by the Ministry of Territorial Administration, will be confirmed by the Constitutional Court — after verifying them — before the inaugural day on June 8.

Toure, who is married with two children, told reporters that he was aware of the “immense task” awaiting him. “The political landscape is harsher than the military rule,” said the President elect who voluntarily stepped down as Mali’s military leader in 1992.

Konare, too, was delighted by the poll’s outcome. “It’s a victory for our democracy that the baton will be passed via the ballot box,” he said.

Konare, who held two five-year terms of office, is prohibited by constitution from seeking a third term.

Cisse, who was fielded by the Alliance for Democracy, conceded defeat and congratulated Toure. “I wish him (Toure) great success and hope that stability and prosperity will return to Mali during his term of office,” he said.

Toure retired in Sep 2001, just in time to qualify as a presidential candidate. According to Mali’s election law, military officers seeking top civil jobs must resign six months prior to the official start of the electoral campaign.

In Mar 1991, Toure overthrew General Moussa Traore, becoming head of state during the 1991-1992 transition. He handed power to an elected government in 1992, after establishing a multi-party system of democracy in Mali.

During his campaign, Toure announced that unemployment, education, training and tackling poverty would be his main priorities.

His other priorities include the elimination of corruption and money laundering. “When you clean the staircase, you have to start from the top,” he said.

Political analysts, however, doubt whether he would ever achieve his objectives. “It will be hard for him to push through any ambitious reforms without a parliamentary majority,” says Amadou Keita, a professor of political science at the University of Mali.

But Toure said he would “create an alliance with the majority party in the National Assembly to achieve” his goals.

For the man in the street, Toure’s election was just “the best thing to happen to Mali”, an impoverished West African country of about 12 million people. One voter said “Toure has qualities that can give people back their sense of hope”.

But, in intellectual circles, where anti-military sentiment is still very strong, Toure’s victory is considered as “a failure of the politicians and a step backward”.

Even so, Ibrahim Sangho, chairperson of the Network for Electoral Process, a local non-governmental organisation, which dispatched 570 observers to the elections, described the poll as ‘satisfactory’.

In a statement, the Africa Obota Centre, a sub-regional group that also observed the elections, said it was delighted with the peaceful atmosphere in which the polls took place.