Highlights: Mali: ten days after the end of the transition, the authorities remain silent. A presidential decree officially set the deadline for March 28, but the presidential election having been postponed sine die. For ten days, calls have multiplied for the organization of elections and for a rapid return to constitutional order. Supporters of the authorities are trying to justify this situation of legal vacuum, writes David Baché, RFI's Africa editor-in-chief. The Malian transitional authorities continue to play the silence card and continue their activities, he says.

In Mali, ten days after the end of the transition, the authorities remain silent. A presidential decree officially set the deadline for March 28, but the presidential election having been postponed...

Mali: ten days after the end of the transition, the authorities remain silent

In Mali, ten days after the end of the transition, the authorities remain silent. A presidential decree officially set the deadline for March 28, but the presidential election having been postponed

sine die

, the Malian transitional authorities are

de facto

still in place. For ten days, calls have multiplied for the organization of elections and for a rapid return to constitutional order. Supporters of the authorities are trying to justify this situation of legal vacuum.

Colonel Assimi Goita, head of the junta in power in Mali, during the meeting with ECOWAS, August 22, 2020, in Bamako. REUTERS/Moussa Kalapo

By: David Baché

Mali

, the Malian transitional authorities are simply acting as if nothing had happened. They still do not consider it necessary to comment on the official end of the period that they themselves had set. So, it is their supporters who, in the national media or on social networks, try to justify the situation. Some organizations close to the military in power are pleading for their continued existence indefinitely, praising their work and explaining that the “mission” they have assigned to themselves – securing the country in particular – is not yet complete.

On a more legal level, an editorial article in the state newspaper

L'Essor

or even members of the National Transition Council (CNT) believe that the transition charter promulgated almost four years ago, in September 2020, provides that the transition only ends after the election of a new president. The new Constitution promulgated last July

also “returns to the electoral fact

”, assure certain voices in the CNT.

This presidential election intended to mark

the return to constitutional order

having not been organized, the transition period would be automatically and legitimately extended. The debate would therefore have no reason to exist and would only be fueled by enemies of the nation, or even exploited by foreign powers.

Before the Malian people

Faced with them, however, in a completely new common approach since the military coup of August 2020, almost all of Mali's political parties and civil society organizations denounce a situation of "

legal and institutional vacuum

» and demand the organization, “

as soon as possible

”, of the presidential election.

This position

was the subject of a joint press release on Sunday March 31. It is based on legal arguments defended by numerous Malian lawyers, magistrates and prosecutors, who recall that

the deadline of February 26

was set by Colonel Assimi Goïta himself, by presidential decree. It was two years ago, after a first postponement. A commitment that is both institutional and moral, made before the international community, but above all before the Malian people.

The most vindictive point out that the current authorities are the result of a military coup, that they were never elected or chosen in any way, and that their only legitimacy is therefore only that of weapons.

constitutional Court

This debate, as technical as it is political, only the Constitutional Court has the legitimacy to decide it. It was also officially referred to last week, but the organizations of magistrates and prosecutors who initiated this approach, and who are calling in particular for "

the forfeiture of the organs of the transition

", do not hide their skepticism regarding the independence of the Court and say they expect, at best, an announcement of inadmissibility.

In the meantime, the debate continues and grows, creating an ever-widening gulf between those loyal to the transitional authorities and those in favor of a return to democratic principles.

The Malian transitional authorities continue to play the silence card and continue their activities. One of the most important being, ironically coincidentally, the preparation of the inter-Malian dialogue supposed to bring peace and social cohesion to the country.

Mali: ten days after the end of the transition, the authorities remain silent

Mali: ten days after the end of the transition, the authorities remain silent

Before the Malian people

constitutional Court

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest