The presidential party in Mali leads the results of the legislative elections in March-April, with 43 deputies out of 147 in the National Assembly, according to provisional official figures published Thursday, April 23, which must be validated by the Constitutional Court. The participation amounts to 35.33%.

The presidential party, the Rally for Mali (RPM), is followed by another party of the presidential movement, the Alliance for Democracy in Mali (Adema), which obtains 22 deputies. Next comes the formation of the former Prime Minister and main opponent Soumaïla Cissé, the Union for the Republic and Democracy (URD), with 19 deputies.

Soumaïla Cissé, who is among the elected deputies, was kidnapped on March 25 while he was campaigning in his home area, central Mali.

Violence and Covid-19

The rest of the 63 seats in the National Assembly are shared between 18 other formations among the 21 who participated in these legislative elections, the first and second rounds of which were held on March 29 and April 19, respectively. Twenty-two seats had been filled in the first round.

These legislative elections had been maintained despite the context marked by jihadist violence and the new coronavirus. Mali has reported 258 confirmed cases of Covid-19, including 57 cured and 14 deaths.

The stake of the ballot was to renew a parliament elected in 2013 and whose mandate was to end in 2018, and to advance the application of the Algiers peace agreement. This, signed in 2015 between the independentist armed groups and Bamako, provides for more decentralization via a constitutional reform which must go through the Assembly.

With AFP

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