The 28 Candidates vying for the presidential seat in Mali have intensified their campaign last Sunday ahead of the presidential elections slated to take place on the 28 of July 2013. 

The candidates, 27 men includes past premiers Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, Cheick Modibo Diarra, Modibo Sidibe and Soumana Sacko and a woman Haider Aichata Cisse, a legislator for a constituency near the northern city of Gao.

The candidates are campaigning on the message of peace, rebuilding the country and ensuring security and development for the country which is in transition since the coup in March last year which ousted the democratically-elected president, just months before he was due to step down at the end of his final term in office.

This election is seen as a watershed to end the 18 months of occupation by militants who seized the northern part of the country and pave the way for stability and redevelopment of the country.

However, many Malian’s and other observers have expressed worry over the timing of the elections and are of the opinion that the elections be postponed with the President of Mali’s Electoral Commission saying “it would be extremely difficult to hold the first round of the presidential elections on July 28”

Second round of the elections is expected to take place on the 11 August 2013

AEP

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