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MALI-VOTE-POLITICS LEAD
Keita re-elected Mali president with landslide
BAMAKO, Aug 16, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita
has been re-elected for a five-year term after winning 67.17 percent of the
vote in a runoff, the government announced on Thursday.
Opposition challenger and former finance minister Soumaila Cisse, who also
ran against Keita in 2013, won 32.83 percent on Sunday, Local Government
Minister Mohamed Ag Erlaf said on national television, giving provisional
figures.
Turnout was low, at 34.5%.
Violence, low public enthusiasm and accusations of fraud marred the vote.
Cisse, 68, on Monday said he would reject the results.
Keita, 73, will take office on September 4, with hopes he can strengthen a
2015 peace accord between the government, government-allied groups and former
Tuareg rebels.
Mali, a landlocked nation home to at least 20 ethnic groups where the
majority of people live on less than $2 (1.76 euros) a day, has battled
jihadist attacks and intercommunal violence for years.
Islamist attacks have spread from the north to the centre and south of the
vast country and spilled into neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger, often
inflaming communal conflicts.
On Wednesday, the opposition claimed a technician working for Cisse was
tortured while detained by security forces for three days.
Internet access was cut on mobile networks in Bamako on Thursday morning
ahead of the announcement, AFP journalists witnessed.
BSS/AFP/ARS/1649 hrs