Mali: the possibility of a candidacy of Assimi Goïta for the presidential agitates the political class
Colonel Assimi Goïta in August 2020. © Baba Ahmed AP
Text by: David Baché
2 mins
The new electoral law, including in its version amended by the members of the CNT, could allow Colonel Assimi Goïta to stand in the next presidential election.
A potentially explosive provision, so far unnoticed.
RFI collected the reactions, off the microphone, of Malian political figures.
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In Mali, the new electoral law adopted just a week ago by the National Transitional Council, the legislative body of the transition, is still waiting to be promulgated by the president, Colonel Assimi Goïta.
This new law, the government's flagship project, has been profoundly modified by the CNT: 92 amendments, which are not to the taste of the government.
Will President Goïta still promulgate the text, with his amendments?
Will he send it back to the CNT for a second reading?
What worries most people is
the possibility of a candidacy of the soldiers
currently in power for the next presidential term, which is supposed to mark the end of the transition.
A possibility offered by the combination of this new electoral law and the revised transition charter.
The condition: that the president resigns both from the presidency and from the army, four months before the date of the future election.
"It's in their logic"
Some CNT members declined to comment.
Others seemed to discover the breach they may have just opened.
"
The members of the CNT have however reduced the time allowed for the president to present himself from six to four months
(by amending the initial text proposed by the government)", notes a wise observer of Malian political life, who sees this as a measure of precaution to minimize the risk of unpleasant surprises, in a country where anything seems to be able to happen.
According to this source, the President of the Transition, Colonel Assimi Goïta, and the President of the CNT, Colonel Malick Diaw, acted in concert.
"
I do not believe that the military will go to the elections
", sweeps away a former minister, however suspicious of the putschist colonels.
A very isolated point of view: “
it does not surprise us, it is in their logic
”, assures another former minister, from another political family.
“
The risk,
he continues,
is that such deceit will plunge the country into a new crisis.
And to recall that the impossibility for the president as for the members of the government of the Transition to go to the next elections is an initial commitment of the junta, and a requirement of ECOWAS.
“
They want to stay for a long time
”, finally analyzes another former member of the government, still very influential.
“
So we will have to play tight to dissuade them.
Or beat them in the elections democratically.
Which won't be easy.
»
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