It is the first time that Malians have voted on the future of their country in crisis since the advent of the military junta three years ago.
About 8.4 million Malians are called upon to slip a “yes” or “no” ballot into the ballot box. They decide, Sunday, June 18, by referendum on a new Constitution, a first since the advent of the military junta three years ago. The ballot is contested by a motley opposition and compromised by persistent insecurity in several regions. Results are expected within 72 hours. Here are the main issues.
A strengthening of powers
Among the changes proposed by the junta compared to the 1992 Constitution, voters will decide whether or not to accept a strengthening of the powers of the president at the head of this country confronted with the expansion of jihadism and a security, political and economic crisis. and humanitarian.
The proposed Constitution thus provides for amnesty for the perpetrators of coups d’etat prior to its promulgation and fuels persistent speculation about a possible presidential candidacy of Colonel Assimi Goïta.
Even if the victory of the yes seems acquired, itThis acceptance is one of the challenges of the consultation. Critics of the project describe it as tailor-made for keeping the military in power beyond the presidential election scheduled for February 2024, despite their commitment to give way to civilians.
A measure of the popularity of Assimi Goïta
In an environment made difficult to decipher by the opacity of the system and the restrictions imposed on expression, the vote could deliver indications, to be taken with caution, on the support of the population for the junta and its leader, the reputedly popular Assimi Goïta, as well as on the internal situation.
The soldiers, who took power by force in 2020 and exercise it without sharing, claim a decline of the jihadists on the ground. The vote takes place less than 48 hours after the resounding leave given by Bamako to the UN mission after ten years of presence. The authorities believe that the mission has failed and that Mali can assume its security through its “own means”.
A ballot whose organization is scrutinized
Participation, although traditionally low, and the conditions for the conduct of the ballot will be scrutinized. IPersistent insecurity is expected to ban voting over large swaths. Where it will take place, offices are always exposed to attacks.
In the north of the country, in the localities they control, the former rebels who signed a fragile peace should prevent the vote on a project where they say they cannot find the agreement they signed in 2015. They are one of the components of an opposition to the project which, although heterogeneous, has succeeded in making itself heard.
In a last speech on Friday, Colonel Goïta called on his fellow citizens to vote “massively” for the project, which he presented as the guarantor of a “strong state”of a “democratic governance” and one “regained confidence” Malians in the authorities.