Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita will face off with his rival Soumaila Cisse in a presidential election run-off.
Both candidates failed to obtain more than 50 percent of votes therefore requiring a second round of voting this month.
Results released by the government on Thursday showed that Keita won 41.4 percent of the votes.
His main rival Soumaila Cisse won 17.8 percent of votes in Sunday’s election.
Both candidates will now have to convince electorates once more to secure victory in the run-off.
This will be the second time Keita and Cisse, a former finance minister are heading to a run-off.
In 2013 president Keita, beat Soumaila Cisse in a second round of voting. He won then by 77% although the opposition disputed the outcome.
Voting did not take place in some 700 polling stations in the first round due to disruptions from armed groups.
Mali has experienced a lot of jihadist violence and ethnic attacks over the years with little progress in stopping them.
President Keita has been criticized for doing little to resolve the crisis.
But he branded the series of ethnic and jihadist related attacks as “pockets of violence and remnants of terrorism”.
“There’s no more war-mongering in Mali today,” Keita said.
Source: Africafeeds.com
