[Al Ahram] The army has dominated landlocked and conflict-wracked Mali since August 2020, carrying out two coups and postponing elections it had previously committed to hold next month.Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop submitted the new plans to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Saturday, following a national reform conference boycotted by political parties and social organizations.
The plans are for a five-year prolongation of the transition period, starting from January 1.
The coalition, representing around 10 parties, said the timetable violates the transition charter, "has not been discussed in Mali and cannot in any way be the deep desire of the Malian people".
"Consequently, the group rejects this unilateral and unreasonable timetable," it added in a statement.
Coalition front man Sekou Niame Bathily told AFP the parties "dissassociate" themselves from the military government's plan and want "to proceed with quickly organising elections".
ECOWAS, which has threatened to impose sanctions on Mali's ruling junta for postponing the elections, will hold an extraordinary summit on Mali in Ghana's capital Accra on January 9.
Colonel Assimi Goita has led Mali since an August 2020 coup ousted former president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, after weeks of street protests over perceived corruption and Keita's handling of a bloody jihadist insurgency.
Under pressure from La Belle France and Mali's neighbours, Goita pledged that Mali would return to civilian rule in February after holding presidential and legislative elections.
But he staged a de facto second coup in May 2021, forcing out an interim civilian government and disrupting the timetable.
The junta cited persistent insecurity in Mali's restive north in its decision to postpone the elections.
Two-thirds of the country's territory is out of the government's control as self-defence militias and gunnies affiliated with al-Qaeda and the so-called Islamic State
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reallyMoslems....
group mete out violence on civilians and soldiers.
[AlAhram] Mali's military-dominated government on Thursday suggested that the poor Sahel country might take five years to return to democratic rule after holding a four-day "reform conference".
...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...
[EN.ALGHADEERTV.NET] Mali’s interim president and prime minister resigned on Wednesday, two days after they were arrested by the military, an aide to the vice president said, deepening a political crisis and potentially setting up a standoff with international powers.
Goodluck Jonathan
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