Mali: Quick Notes on the Presidential Candidates

On 4 July, Mali’s Constitutional Court released its final list (.pdf, French) of 24 candidates for the 29 July presidential elections. Here they are (pp. 9-10):

1. Ibrahim Boubacar KEITA
2. Aliou DIALLO
3. Choguel Kokalla MAÏGA;
4. Harouna SANKARE
5. Housseini Amion GUINDO
6. Mamadou Oumar SIDIBE
7. Soumaïla CISSE
8. Dramane DEMBELE
9. Moussa Sinko COULIBALY
10. Cheick Mohamed Abdoulaye Souad dit Modibo DIARRA
11. Niankoro Yeah SAMAKE
12. Modibo KONE
13. Daba DIAWARA
14. Mamadou DIARRA
15. Mohamed Ali BATHILY
16. Mamadou TRAORE
17. Modibo SIDIBE
18. Hamadoun TOURE
19. Modibo KADJOKE
20. Adama KANE
21. Kalfa SANOGO
22. Madame Djénéba N’DIAYE
23. Oumar MARIKO
24. Mountaga TALL

This list revises a 30 June decision from the Court that only recognized 17 candidates (.pdf, French, p. 9). The Court had invalidated some candidacies on technical grounds, given that candidates need to have the official support of either ten parliamentary deputies or of five elected municipal officials from each of Mali’s regions and from Bamako (see the .pdf, p. 3). To state the obvious, then, in the interval between the first decision and the second, seven of the excluded candidates were able to correct these technical problems to the Court’s satisfaction. Some of those seven are big names (French) – a former prime minister (see below), two former ministers, etc. Eight other candidacies, however, were definitively invalidated (see here, French).

Here are a few notable candidates among the 24:

1. Ibrahim Boubacar Keita (“IBK”) is the incumbent president.
2. Soumaila Cisse was the runner-up in the 2013 presidential election.
3. Dramane Dembele placed third in the 2013 election.
4. Modibo Diarra (one of those initially excluded by the 30 June decision) was acting prime minister from April-December 2012, in other words amid the jihadist/rebel occupation of northern Mali.
5. Moussa Sinko Coulibaly is a retired general.

Many of the others have serious resumes too, including various former ministers, mayors, and other experienced politicians. At least ten of the 24 candidates for this year’s elections also ran in the last election in 2013, although most of them performed quite dismally (French).

I have no real sense of the incumbent’s chances, although my gut feeling is that he will win. This is not necessarily due to popularity – on two short trips to Bamako earlier this year, it seemed to me that he was relatively unpopular, at least in the capital – but perhaps more due to various elites’ calculations about the future. And in that vein, as always, it’s worth keeping an eye (French) on Prime Minister Maiga.

 

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