Mali's Presidential Election, Round 2

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As expected, incumbent President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta won re-election in the second round on August 12, with 67 percent of the vote, against Soumaïla Cissé.

 Keïta had several normal incumbent advantages, including universal name recognition ("In Mali, even the little children know IBK," says Moussa Timbine, the general assembly's vice president and an IBK supporter.) and solid economic growth, over 5% annually, over the past few years. 

 Instability remains a problem in the country, however.  As reported by the NY Times, "Islamist extremist groups and other armed militias operate in Mali; it is the world’s most dangerous assignment for United Nations peacekeepers. ... Mr. Keïta has been in office since his election in 2013, just after a period during which Mali faced an Islamist insurgency, a rebellion by the Tuareg ethnic group, and a military coup. During his tenure, violence and insecurity have spread closer to the capital, Bamako, with conflict between ethnic groups and local militias emerging in the central region.The 14,000-member United Nations peacekeeping force is regularly attacked."

 Keïta also put his thumb on the scales in some respects. Per the NY Times (and observers from the EU), "The president was flush with cash, exercised a near monopoly over access to state television and used the security forces and the resources of his office to campaign throughout the country." There were also accusations of fraud. In the first round, opposition candidates alleged that "voter cards were deliberately misdistributed and ballot boxes stuffed" and predicted fraud in the second round as well. Observers noted "evidence of irregularities but not fraud."

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