Eleven political parties in Mali on Wednesday urged the ruling junta to confirm a timetable for elections and a return to civilian rule, in a rare display of dissent.
The West African state has been ruled by the military since back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, with the junta initially committing under international pressure to restoring civilian rule by March 2024. However, the military leaders reneged on that promise without setting a new deadline for a vote.
In their statement, the parties said the authorities should “set a detailed and precise timetable for elections before the end of the first quarter of 2025”.
“The people are deliberately being kept in the dark” regarding the timetable for new elections, they said.
And they called on the junta to “guarantee respect for democratic freedoms and the rule of law, the release of prisoners of conscience, the return of political exiles and to put an end to arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances”.
The statement criticised a New Year’s message from junta chief General Assimi Goita in which he made no mention of elections, noting it “with great astonishment”. The parties pointed out that so-called transitional period after the 2020 coup had now lasted “for nearly five years, or as long as an electoral mandate in our country”.
Expressions of opposition have become the rare under the junta, stifled by calls for national unity and repressive measures. Mali has been embroiled in a political, security and economic crisis for more than a decade.
