Mali opposition to use democratic means to contest poll results
What you need to know:
- As Keita supporters rejoiced, Cisse's campaign chief Tiebile Drame lashed the results as bogus.
BAMAKO
Mali's opposition rejected the results Thursday of presidential elections and vowed to use "all democratic means" to contest the outcome.
"These are their results. They do not reflect the truth of the polls," Tiebile Drame, opposition leader Soumaila Cisse's campaign chief, said at the party's headquarters. "We strongly call for people to mobilise."
Cisse on Monday declared in advance that he would reject the results.
He called on "all Malians to rise up... We will not accept the dictatorship of fraud" — a verbal broadside that triggered a UN appeal for calm.
On Thursday, as Ibrahim Boubacar Keita's supporters rejoiced, Cisse's campaign chief Tiebile Drame lashed the results as bogus.
"These are their results. They do not reflect the truth of the polls," Drame said.
"We strongly call for people to mobilise," he said. Keita plans to appeal to the Constitutional Court "to get the fraudulent results cancelled" in some regions, Drame said.
Observer missions sent by the European Union and the African Union (AU) have issued provisional reports saying the election was not badly impaired.
"Our observers did not see fraud but irregularities," EU mission chief Cecile Kyenge said. The AU said voting was conducted "in acceptable conditions."
