Though he did not specify a timeframe, Mali’s leading general on Wednesday made an uncommon allusion to elections that would terminate military control.
According to the minutes of a council of ministers meeting, Junta chief general Assimi Goita “invited the members of the government to create the necessary conditions for the organisation of transparent and peaceful elections.”
In Mali’s turbulent political environment, such statements are unusual because the junta typically keeps quiet about the prospect of returning power to civilians.
The west African nation’s civilian prime minister was fired last week for opposing the junta, a move that appears to have strengthened the army’s grasp on power.
But the elections mooted by Goita Wednesday would “put an end to the transition” — the term the junta uses to refer to the period in which they say they want to stabilise the crisis-wracked and jihadist-plagued nation before seeing power handed to civilian elected leaders.
After taking power in back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, the military initially committed under international pressure to give way to civilians in March 2024 after a presidential election.
However, the junta has now broken that pledge without announcing when a fresh referendum would be held.
The army has been in charge of overseeing Mali’s shift away from France, its old imperial master, and towards Russia since 2020.
Despite early military pledges not to run for office following the return to civilian government, Goita is anticipated to do so if the military does schedule a presidential election.
Attacks by jihadists and other armed groups, along with a separatist conflict in the desert north, have been the main causes of Mali’s political and security crises since 2012.
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