Mali

Mali protest movement proposes 2-year transition to civilian rule

Agence France-Presse

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Mali protest movement proposes 2-year transition to civilian rule

Choguel Maiga of M5-RFP speaks to the press after a meeting with CNSP (National Committee for the Salvation of the People) leaders at the CNSP headquarters on the military base in Kati, Mali, just outside of Bamako, on August 26, 2020. A Malian protest coalition that had campaigned against former president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said on August 26, 2020, it was willing to work with the junta which ousted him in a process to restore civilian rule. ANNIE RISEMBERG / AFP

AFP

The protest movement demands that the military junta give it a role in the transition, in keeping with its role in spearheading former Mali president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita's ouster

The protest coalition that campaigned against former Mali president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has proposed that the military junta that ousted him organize a transition to civilian rule within 24 months, one of its leaders said Sunday, August 30.

Military rulers received representatives of the June 5 Movement at the Kati barracks near Bamako late Saturday, August 29, after announcing they would postpone a meeting with civic groups, political organizations and former rebels on the transfer of power due to “organizational reasons.”

The protest movement has demanded that the military junta give it a role in the transition, in keeping with its role in spearheading Keita’s ouster.

It has proposed “a transition of 18 to 24 months” with civilians heading a transitional presidency, government and assembly, one of the movement’s leaders, Choguel Maiga, told Agence France-Presse.

It also called for “a committee to monitor and supervise the transition which will be composed of a majority of members of the junta and the (June 5 Movement),” he said.

The junta did not comment on the meeting.

The August 18 coup has prompted the West African country’s neighbors and ally France to call for a swift transfer of power, amid heightened worries over instability in a country already struggling with an Islamist insurgency, ethnic violence and economic malaise.

French Defense Minister Florence Parly told media Sunday that any delay in restoring civilian rule would benefit terrorists.

Mali’s influential imam Mahmoud Dicko, a key player in the mass opposition protests that led to Keita’s ouster, warned Friday, August 28, that the military rulers did not have “carte blanche.”

Dicko’s spokesman Issa Kaou Djim later expanded on this, saying the imam “said the people have started to doubt” the junta.

Within hours of taking control, the junta pledged to enact a political transition and stage elections within a “reasonable time.”

Chief envoy of the regional bloc ECOWAS, former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan, said last week that the coup leaders wanted a three-year transition period.

This was rejected by the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States, which has demanded an immediate civilian transition and elections within 12 months. – Rappler.com

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