Keita re-elected Mali president with landslide

AFP  |  Bamako 

Malian Ibrahim has been re-elected for a five-year term after winning 67.17 per cent of the vote in a runoff, the government announced today.

Opposition challenger and former minister Soumaila Cisse, who also ran against in 2013, won 32.83 per cent on Sunday, 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 USD 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 and Niger, often inflaming communal conflicts.

Yesterday, the opposition claimed a working for Cisse was tortured while detained by security forces for three days.

was cut on mobile networks in Bamako today ahead of the announcement, AFP journalists witnessed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Thu, August 16 2018. 17:35 IST