No party or coalition secured a majority in Parliament in last Sunday’s first round elections.
Preliminary results of the first round of Mali’s parliamentary elections held on November 24, 2013 show that less than 20 of the 147 seats were won outright, obliging the electoral authorities to call runoff polls on December 15, 2013 in constituencies where no party secured a majority.
Radio France Internationale, RFI, reported yesterday, November 28 that no party or coalition secured the majority in last Sunday’s election whose initial results were released on Wednesday, November 27. The turnout was 38.4 per cent, well below the 50 per cent in last July’s runoff presidential election. The Minister of Territorial Administration, Moussa Sinko Coulibaly, described it as falling "far short of expectations,” Deutsche Welle said.
Results showed that Mali's three main political parties secured just 16 out of the 147 seats in Parliament. The RPM party of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita got eight seats, while Keita's losing presidential rival, Soumaïla Cissé, won his seat in Timbuktu. His URD party took five other seats and a third party, ADEMA-PASJ, took two seats. Some 1,087 candidates competed for the 147 parliamentary seats. The vote was closely watched by donors who pledged $3.25 billion (about FCFA 1,568 billion) to rebuild the country and restore stability to the north.
Meanwhile, the observer mission of the West African regional bloc, ECOWAS, said Sunday's legislative election met ''globally-acceptable standards,” news agencies reported. The 100-member mission led by Prof. Amos Sawyer, former President of Liberia, noted that the processes and conduct of stakeholders on Election Day showed “a marked improvement” over the presidential elections of July/August.
Over 6.5 million people registered for last Sunday’s election in the last stage of the political transition process to restore constitutional order and Mali’s territorial integrity after the 10-month political and security crises. A secessionist Tuareg uprising in the north led to a military coup in March 2012 that overthrew President Amadou Toumani Touré. Rebels and Al Qaeda-linked Islamist groups that occupied the north were only driven out last January by French and African forces.
