- Title: MALI: Campaigning in full swing as Mali readies for polls
- Date: 23rd July 2013
- Summary: IBK ON STAGE ADDRESSING HIS SUPPORTERS SUPPORTERS CHEERING IBK BAMAKO, MALI (JULY 23, 2013) (REUTERS) 15 STREET SCENES PEOPLE WALKING
- Embargoed: 7th August 2013 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Mali
- Country: Mali
- Topics: Politics
- Reuters ID: LVABX2SZ5RMFFPDOGZOQN7P7J192
- Story Text: Mali's presidential hopefuls campaign in Bamako for a July 28 election intend to draw a line under a coup and an Islamist uprising, despite concerns that a rushed poll may sow the seeds of future strife.
From Mali's leafy southern riverside towns to the northern desert, presidential candidates promise voters a stronger army, an end to graft and poverty and the reconciliation of a divided nation.
Their posters and photographs adorned the streets as they dole out T-shirts at rallies and houses, from mini-buses and under mango trees emblazoned with posters, ahead of the July 28 poll.
France, which sent 3,000 troops to Mali in January to halt an offensive by al Qaeda-linked Islamists, has pressed hard for the July poll, eager to see an elected government in place to negotiate with Tuareg rebels in the north and to reform a dysfunctional state that imploded last year.
Yet millions of voting cards must still be dispatched across a vast territory twice the size of France.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by the conflict and many more are still missing from outdated voter lists.
OSIWA, a foundation funded by financier George Soros to promote democracy in West Africa, echoed concerns by the International Crisis Group that the technical difficulties could result in the election of a president deprived of the legitimacy necessary to lead a confused and weakened country back to stability .
Both groups have called for a delay to address technical problems and avoid a destabilizing challenge to the election result.
"Despite of everything we should go to the elections, it's an obligation, because our future is in play. Everybody wants to be happy, we all just want to be happy," said a shoe seller in Bamako on Tuesday (July 23), who was displaying his merchandise on trees on the capital's streets.
"We really wish that the new president rises to expectations, to help us come out of this bad situation," said Aboubacar Diallo, another man from Bamako. He said he will vote for one of the country's favourites, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita or IBK, as Malians call him.
IBK's main challenger is Soumaila Cisse, and both were running strong campaigns in Bamako.
The government, under pressure from Paris, insists pressing ahead with the vote is the only way to kick-start a recovery.
In what is seen as a wide open race, 28 candidates are contesting the presidency. Though four of them have previously served as prime minister, there is no government-backed candidate and a run-off will take place on August 11 if no-one wins an outright majority in the first round.
All candidates promise to revamp an army that received years of U.S. training but then in March 2012 toppled the president weeks before he was due to step down. It then folded in the face of an offensive by a mix of separatist and Islamist rebels.
Other promises include fixing a broken education system and revising mining contracts in one of Africa's top gold producers. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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