On April 29th, 2007 Mali held a democratic presidential election (fourth since 1992) resulting in the re-election of incumbent president Amadou Toumani Toure (known as ATT). Elections were described using words such as peaceful, calm, quiet, and transparent.
News from West Africa rarely reaches western media outlets, and when West African news does make headlines, it is usually for all the wrong reasons: Charles Taylor; recent violence in La Guinee; continuing hostility in Cote D’Ivoire; and then there is the recent election in Nigeria, of which international observers have described as being among the worst they’ve ever seen. Here is some good news about democratic progress in the West African country of Mali.
ATT, supported by Mali’s two largest political parties Movement Citoyen and ADEMA, received 71.2 percent of votes. His main challenger, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita of the Rally for Mali (RPM), was second with 19.2 percent; followed by Tiebile Drame with 3.0 percent; Omar Mariko 2.7 with percent; Mamadou Blaise Sangare with 1.6 percent; Soumeilou Boubèye Maïga with 1.5 percent; Madame Sidibé Oumou Diallo with 0.6 percent; and Madiassa Maguiragua with 0.3 percent. The turnout rate was estimated at approximately 40 percent of eligible voters. Both internal observers and the international group ECOWAS commented that the election was peaceful, uneventful and transparent. Some minor problems were noted, specifically in the Kayes area where polling stations were moved at the last minute; however, all candidates eventually conceded the results of the election. Mali's Constitutional Court confirmed the re-election of ATT two weeks after the election. This election had added significance in the fact that a woman ran for president (Madame Diallo).
First, a brief history of recent events in Malian democracy. In 1991 the Malian military staged a non-violent coup to overthrow the dictator Moussa Traore. ATT who was a colonel in the Malian military and a key participant in the coup subsequently assumed duties of president and immediately pledged to step down for democratic elections as soon as the country was stable. In 1992 Mali held democratic presidential elections, which resulted in the election of Alpha Omar Konare, who is now president of the African Union. ATT is generally well liked in Mali because of his role in the 1991 coup and because he did step down for free elections in 1992.
The process of ensuring a fair and transparent election was started months before the actual election date. Election roles were meticulously checked for accuracy to ensure all eligible voters were identified; the names of deceased removed from election roles and the names of newly eligible voters were added. The entire process was conducted cooperatively by representatives of the government and unpaid volunteers of several political parties. Election lists were alphabetized, well organized and posted months ahead of elections, and eligible voters were given registration cards confirming their eligibility. Leading up to the election, several political parties (Movement Citoyen, ADEMA, RPM and PARENA) were able to stage rallies in even the brousse villages in order to get their candidate's message to the people (and of course, they paid for the food too).
The day of the election, I was able to watch a lot of election process (not as an official observer, just someone living and working in Mali) and asked several friends who voted what they thought. (Please note that I did not actually witness any voting or go to any polling areas, I just talked and had tea with friends after they finished voting and working at the polls.) Nearly every one was proud of the fact that they took the opportunity to vote. The process appeared fairly simple and the public was extensively sensitized to the voting process by the state-run media outlet Office de Radiodiffusion Television du Mali (ORTM) prior to the election. Easy-to-Follow publicities (of which Ross Perot would be envious) were shown nightly before and after the news in several languages including French, Bambanan, Fulani, Songrai, and Tomashek. Ballots featured a large color picture of each candidate with the name of the candidate along with a space next to the candidate’s picture where the voter would mark their choice. Voters marked their choice with a fingerprint next to the respective candidate. Voters then folded the ballot and deposited it into a clear ballot box. (Clear boxes used to help prevent obvious ballot stuffing would be my guess). Voters then had their thumbs dipped in the now-infamous indelible blue ink to prevent people from voting twice. Several local officials, local political party representatives and other important people seemed to be on hand to make sure things passed sans problem. Immediately after polls closed, functionaries from the government, community leaders and representatives of all the political parties met at the polling areas to begin counting votes together. Within 48 hours, a country without a reliable road and communications infrastructure system, voted, counted, and reported the results of this election to the central election authority and its citizens, and then the rest of the world.
ATT was generally regarded as being the frontrunner throughout the campaign and definitely did receive the largest share of coverage by ORTM. ORTM clearly provided an platform for ATT to highlight his achievements, promote his projects and generally be seen/heard by the people. I'm not sure how much of the coverage of him was intentional and how much stems from the fact that it is the president who makes the news. However, leading up to the election, each candidate received time on ORTM’s nightly journal (the equivalent of nightly news in the States) to present their views, positions and platforms and vision for Mali. Also, political parties were effective in getting their message out to the population, even in more remote brousse villages (I’m not sure where they found the money to pay for their expenses in doing so).
ATT has done some positive things for Mali, a recent example being his recent receipt of $461 billion in development aid for Mali via the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). Most of my Malian friends like him; they think he is a decent enough president and they like the fact that he kept his word to step down after the coup in 1991.
However, they remain skeptical of him sending large amounts of development money to the less-populated Kidal and Tombouctou regions and go so far to say that he is ignoring the poorest peoples in more populated areas to the south. One friend I spoke to expressed discontent at the fact that the government was spending so much money on an election at all, especially when people in the village were without electricity, a robinet water source, a decent access road... and in some cases food. I didn’t know how to convince my friend of the value of democracy and having the ability to choose ones elected leaders. And for that matter, I don’t think I had any grounds to do so, especially when there indeed are people starving in the village. Clearly Mali has a long way to go on the road to development. Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world. The literacy is rate is amongst the world’s lowest (and unfortunately women are among the least literate). Infant mortality is amongst the highest. It is a land-locked country (whether this truly is a defining factor in development is debatable), with a large desert expanse and natural resources that are difficult to develop. There are still charges of cronyism and corruption in the government.
Despite all of that, Mali is moving in the right direction. Growth under ATT is positive (but not effecting everyone) and inflation is low (by African standards) and the MCC is expected to have an enormous impact on Mali’s potential to trade on a regional and global scale. Additionally, Mali is playing a role in fighting terrorism and illegal immigration. Mali has a large and largely lawless northern desert that is difficult to control. Human traffickers have used the desert to their advantage as a route to move people who are trying to reach European countries. There are rumors of traffickers leaving people in the desert to die (after the people paid for passage, of course). Additionally, the Algeria-based terrorist group Al Qaeda in Islamic North Africa, formerly the GSPC, operates on the border of Mali and has had intermittent clashes with Malian Toureg and Tamashek clans loyal to the Malian government. The Malian government with the help of the United States (and other countries) is working with the Toureg and Tamashek clans to develop aid projects and provide protection from Al Qaeda in Islamic North Africa. Indeed this is a major reason ATT has focused so much of his attention on Northern Mali.
Continuing progress in democratic leadership is making an impact in Mali. The community of developed nations, including the European Union and United States is closely looking at Mali as an example of West African democracy and wants to further promote Mali’s growth and development through foreign aid and in promotion of transparency in government. Additionally, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) are very active in Mali, especially with construction of schools, access to safe drinking water, women’s literacy, women’s income generation, and HIV/AIDs and Malaria programs. Much has been said and written about what is necessary for development to take hold in Africa; effective leadership is one of those things and Mali is on its way.
Finally I'm going to close with some personal comments. The Malian people are wonderful. I’ve never been around a group of people that have decided as a culture to seek peaceful solutions to disputes and to find the path that best benefits the community rather than the individual. I cannot stress enough the fact that community unity above personal achievement is a Malian cultural value. Right now the country is moving into the rainy season, which for most everyone means a lot of hard work preparing the fields and planting and I'm really looking forward going out and working with them. (They think it is pretty funny that this American guy wants to go to the fields to plow by hand). The point is, their life is tough enough as it is, they've figured out that fighting over differences today which will not matter tomorrow isn't worth while. Not when there is work to be done and families to be cared for.
I've really don't have a source for my information other than the numbers for the results and the comments by the international observers which came from:
Numbers
Observers
The rest of the stuff is just observation and me catching ORTM. I hope that I've been reasonably objective.
Finally, here is an unrelated and shameless pimp of some great Malian Music.