Proposals would see the ruling junta appoint a new leader for a two-year transition. https://t.co/NkexxZ8Y8n
— Democracy Digest (@demdigest) September 12, 2020
A group of constitutional experts appointed by Mali’s junta have proposed that the country form a two-year transitional government led by a president chosen by the soldiers behind a military coup which toppled the country’s embattled President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita last month. Keita was ousted following months of street protests in Mali against unemployment, rising inequality, and the government’s inability to quash a spiraling Islamist insurgency, Amy MacKinnon writes for Foreign Policy:
Hours after the Aug. 18 coup, military leaders vowed to return the country to civilian leadership and hold elections in a “reasonable” time frame. The recommendations, which have not yet been approved, suggest that the new interim president be a “civil or military personality.” The selection of a military-linked figure would fuel concerns that the military will be slow to hand power back to civilian leaders….The raft of measures were announced Friday, on the second day of a “national consultation” between political parties, unions, and representatives of civil society which seeks to forge a way forward in the wake of the coup.
It wasn’t always like this, adds MacKinnon, a Penn Kemble fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Mali was once a beacon of democracy and stability in Africa. To understand where things went wrong and what could come next, read Foreign Policy’s guide to Mali by Kathryn Salam. RTWT
