Mali Junta Chief Brings In New Constitution Amid Protests

The head of the junta in Mali brought in a new constitution for the West African nation on Saturday, prompting protests from concerned political and civil opponents.

The military leaders have made the constitution a cornerstone for the rebuilding of Mali, which is facing the spread of jihadism and a deep, multi-faceted crisis.

Ninety-seven percent of the referendum votes were cast in favour of the changes last month, according to the electoral authority. However turnout was put at 38 percent in the landlocked Sahel country, which is struggling with an 11-year jihadist insurgency.

The new constitution became legal when it was promulgated in the official gazette on Saturday by Colonel Assimi Goita, head of the military junta in power since 2020.

A number of petitions lodged with the Constitutional Court were rejected, including one calling for the referendum to be annulled because it had not been held throughout the country.

A movement critical of the colonels in power said on Saturday that it deplored how the court had dealt with “the relevant and well-founded petitions of its members, going so far as to ignore the evidence put forward”.

Opponents of the plan believe the vote was designed to keep the colonels in power beyond the presidential election scheduled for February 2024, despite their initial commitment to hand over to civilians after the elections.

The new constitution will strengthen the role of the president, a change that has spurred expectations that Goita intends to vie for the job.

The changes will also give pride of place to the armed forces which have pivoted the country away from the former dominant power France and towards Russia.

The opposition movement, which brings together political parties and civil society organisations, denounced the validation of the referendum vote “despite the numerous irregularities, violations of the law and the absence of voting in several parts of the country”.

Ismael Sacko, head of the Social Democratic Party which was dissolved by the junta in mid-June, condemned “a plot against democracy” and called on the Malian judiciary “to get its act together”.