While in Mali, the debate on the new electoral law has mainly focused on the differences between the National Transitional Council and the government, the text, including in its version amended by the members of the CNT, could allow the Colonel Assimi Goïta to run for the next presidential election. A potentially explosive provision so far gone unnoticed.
It was the Election Observation Mission in Mali (Model Mali), made up of experts from civil society and around forty organisations, which noted this in its latest report: the new electoral law, if it is enacted, will allow military members of the current transitional authorities to stand in the next presidential election. This on the condition of resigning four months before.
If the Transition Charter prohibits the President from presenting himself, the revised version of this charter dating from last February also provides that in the event of a vacancy of the presidency of the transition – ” for any reason – it is the president of the CNT who would replace him.
The experts of the Electoral Observation Mission therefore believe that the combination of these two texts – the new electoral law and the revised charter – makes possible the candidacy of Colonel Assimi Goïta for the next presidential election: it would suffice for him to resign at the both the Presidency and the army, four months before the date of the ballot.
A potentially explosive provision, so far unnoticed. The vote of the electoral law with 92 amendments having brought the controversy over the differences between the CNT and the governmentpartly eclipsing the substantive debates.
The new electoral law adopted by the CNTis still waiting to be promulgated by the transitional president, Colonel Assimi Goïta.