Despite heavy security during voting after the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa one of the main armed groups in northern Mali said it would “strike” polling stations, no serious incidents were reported on election day.
Acting president Dioncounda Traore and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon have acknowledged that the vote may be “imperfect” in a country with 500,000 citizens displaced by conflict, but have urged Malians to respect the outcome.
Critics argue that Mali, under pressure from the international community, was rushing to the polls and risked a botched election which could do more harm than good.
But initial estimates put the turnout above 50 percent, a huge improvement on the 36 percent who voted in 2007, and Mali was praised by the international community for running a transparent, credible and peaceful election.
A UN peacekeeping mission integrating more than 6,000 west African soldiers into its ranks is charged with ensuring security in the post election period, and will grow to 11,200 troops, plus 1,400 police, by the end of the year.
The deployment allows France to start withdrawing most of the 4,500 troops it sent to Mali in January to stop the Islamists from advancing towards Bamako and Paris plans to have just 1,000 troops on the ground before the end of the year.
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