(Bloomberg) -- Mali’s junta set aside funds to conduct elections next year, without saying when the vote will take place and despite previously deciding to postpone the ballot until 2027.
The West African nation’s Finance Ministry provides for 80.7 billion CFA francs ($135 million) of “electoral expenses” in 2025, according to a copy of the draft budget on the website of the finance ministry and verified by Bloomberg. Another 6.1 billion CFA francs has been budgeted for the “regular operating expenses” of the Independent Election Management Authority.
The president of the IEMA, Moustapha Cisse, declined to comment when sent questions by text message. Secretary-General of the Finance Ministry Abdoulaye Traore confirmed the fiscal plan for next year.
Mali has been under military rule since 2021, when Colonel Assimi Goita staged a second coup within a year to remove an interim administration he’d installed to prepare the nation for elections. The vote had initially been planned for 2022, before being delayed until this year.
In May, the heads of Malian civil society groups, religious bodies, educational institutions and other state institutions recommended that the junta extend its transition period to five years to allow Goita to rebuild institutions and tackle security issues facing the country. That pushed the potential election date to 2027.
The coup has failed to halt a surge in Islamist insurgent attacks on Sahelian states, including Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali — all military-led nations that broke ties with former western allies and drew closer to Russia.
Last month, unidentified assailants attacked Mali’s capital, Bamako, targeting a military training camp and the airport area, the worst attack in the country since a raid on an upmarket hotel in the city in 2015.
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