presidential elections - The African Mirror

Sep

2021

Mali could delay post-coup elections

MALI could push back presidential and legislative elections from late February to avoid their validity being contested, its prime minister handling a post-coup transition said. Mali's progress back to democracy following the August 2020 overthrow of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita is being closely monitored in a region that has experienced four coups in 13 months, two of them in Mali. Under pressure from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a regional bloc, Mali's new military leaders agreed to an 18-month transition that would culminate with presidential and legislative elections on Feb. 27, 2022. But in an interview with…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

Voting has started in Burkina Faso, amid escalating violence in the north

NEWS

EDWARD McALLISTER and HENRY WILKINS DJENEBA Sawadogo was making a cake when she heard a noise she did not recognise - a series of sharp cracks that rang across the village of Tongomayel in northern Burkina Faso in June 2019. A dozen gunmen had opened fire, killing her friends and neighbours and forcing the survivors to flee south. In the rush, Sawadogo left behind her identity card, which would have allowed her to vote in Sunday's legislative and presidential elections. "My papers are at home. There is no one there to get them," said the 20-year-old as she comforted her…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Voting begins in Seychelles parliamentary and presidential polls

NEWS

VOTING has began in presidential and parliamentary elections in Seychelles, with the economy battered by COVID-19 and President Danny Faure, in power since 2016, facing voters for the first time. The Indian Ocean archipelago nation is expected to see its tourism-dependent economy contract by 14% this year, according to ratings agency Fitch, reversing some fragile progress since the government defaulted on its debt in 2008 and sought an International Monetary Fund bailout. The same party has been in power since 1977. Faure was previously vice president and became president when his predecessor resigned after a constitutional amendment was passed limiting…