APA – Bamako (Mali) – The decision was announced on Monday 25 September in Bamako during a press briefing by the government spokesman, Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga.
The Malian presidential election, initially scheduled for 4 February for the first round and 18 February 2024 for the second round, has been postponed to a date yet to be specified. The government has taken this decision “for technical reasons.” Minister Abdoulaye Maiga, the government spokesman, justified the postponement by the adoption of a new Constitution in 2023 and the revision of the electoral roll. The final reason cited by the Minister was linked to a dispute with a French company called IDEMIA, which was involved in the RAVEC (Administrative Census for Electoral Purposes) process. The Minister was quick to describe the situation as “hostage-taking” of the census database by this company, which specialises in digital security and is considered to be one of the world leaders in biometric recognition.
According to Colonel Maiga, the company is demanding payment of 5.2 billion CFA francs from the Malian government and is refusing to “transfer ownership of the system, including the transmission of the password.”
The presidential election is not the only one to be postponed. In addition to the fact that the government “has decided to organise only the presidential election to end the transition,” he also indicated that “the other elections will certainly be subject to another timetable to be established by the new authorities, under the directives of the new President of the Republic.”
MD/te/fss/abj/APA