Elections in Mali

Mali's formal electoral system includes direct presidential elections, elections for the National Assembly, local council elections and referendums. The 22 July 2023 Constitution provides for a directly elected president serving five years, with one possible re-election. Law No. 2025-029 of 8 July 2025 revised the Charter of the Transition and provides for a transition president serving a renewable five-year term until pacification. Elections are to end the transition only when suitable conditions exist. The Conseil National de Transition (CNT) has 147 appointed and socially representative members and is not a directly elected parliament. The government and AIGE were working on political, institutional and electoral reforms and information workshops in 2026, but no decree convening an election and no reliable current election calendar were identified in the reviewed official sources. Political competition is also affected by Law No. 2025-005 and Decree No. 2025-0339/PT-RM of 13 May 2025, which abolished the political-party charter and opposition statute and dissolved political parties and political organisations nationwide. New party rules were announced but were not shown as adopted in the available sources. AIGE is an independent administrative authority with legal personality and financial autonomy, based in Bamako. It maintains the electoral register, handles candidacies and data integrity, supervises counting and result centralisation, accredits observers, trains election staff and transports procès-verbaux, or official result records. Coordination bodies operate at regional, district, cercle and commune level with seven members, and at embassies and consulates with five members. The Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation supports the process. The coordination network normally operates from six months before an election until one month after the final result. A Malian citizen of either sex may vote from age 18 if the person retains civil and political rights, is not excluded by law or court order and appears on the electoral register. Registration is organised by commune, embassy or consulate and uses a biometric civil-register database with a photograph and fingerprints. The NINA, or Numéro d'Identification Nationale, is the unique national identification number. A voter may have only one registration. The annual register revision normally runs from 1 October to 31 December. A person who moves must obtain proof of removal before registering in another place. Malians living abroad register through an embassy or consulate. Refugees require official status, inclusion in the biometric database and registration on the refugee list. Complaints about an incorrect or excluded registration go through the competent administrative commission, civil judge or court of appeal, depending on the procedure; deadlines commonly range from five to ten days. The biometric voter card is personal and cannot be transferred. It should normally be available no later than 48 hours before voting, and collection on election day may be possible with proof of identity. No voter fee was identified in the available research. Practical access also depends on reaching the assigned polling station and on the security situation. The 2023 process did not take place in Kidal and other locations, showing that territorial access can affect whether voting occurs even where formal rules exist. For a presidential election, the Constitution provides direct universal suffrage and a single-member majority system with two rounds. The research identifies a conflict between the statutory timetable, which places the second round on the second Sunday after the first round, and the constitutional timetable, which places it on the third Sunday after the Constitutional Court announces the first result; the constitutional or Charter rule prevails under Article 25. A presidential candidate must have Malian origin, hold no other nationality when filing, meet the requirements of good morality and probity and be between 35 and 75 years old. The candidate files a personal declaration by the fortieth day before the election and pays a 25,000,000 FCFA deposit. Half is refunded when the candidate receives at least 5% of the vote; withdrawal normally ends the refund claim except in a case of force majeure. Members of the military and security forces in the transition must resign or retire at least four months before the election. The Constitutional Court receives presidential candidacies. The Constitution provides for a directly elected National Assembly with a five-year term and a system that may be majoritarian, proportional or mixed as defined by law. The 2022 electoral law uses cercle constituencies and the District of Bamako, a two-round majority system, an absolute-majority requirement in the first round and a second round on the twenty-first day. Candidate lists contain exactly the number of seats to be filled, and no gender may occupy more than 70% of a list. The constitutional Senate has a five-year term, with three quarters chosen indirectly by territorial authorities and one quarter designated for authorities, traditional legitimacies, Malians living abroad and distinguished persons; its detailed implementation was not verified. This Senate must be distinguished from the Conseillers nationaux, who under the 2022 law are chosen indirectly by serving communal councillors, with three seats for Malians living abroad through the Haut Conseil des Maliens de l'Extérieur. Communal, cercle, regional and district councils use direct list elections with proportional allocation by highest average, a 5% threshold and no panachage or preferential voting. Candidates for these councils must be at least 21 years old, and the term is five years. The electoral decree is issued by the Council of Ministers, normally at least 90 days before voting. Campaign periods differ by election: presidential and National Assembly campaigns begin on the twenty-first day before voting, while local campaigns begin on the sixteenth day. Campaigning ends at the legally prescribed closing time, normally 24:00 on the final permitted day. Polling stations generally serve 50 to 500 registered voters and open from 08:00 to 18:00. People present at closing may be allowed to finish voting. The voter presents the biometric card, votes personally and privately in a polling booth, marks the ballot, leaves a fingerprint and places the ballot in the box. The face must remain uncovered. Mobile phones and other electronic devices are prohibited until counting and sealing are complete. A voter with a disability may receive assistance from another voter. AIGE coordinates voting for the referendum and presidential election abroad; representation for other elections follows the Constitution and electoral law. Counting begins immediately at the polling station. Scrutineers read ballots aloud and at least two people record the results. A ballot may be invalid if it is blank, insufficiently marked, identifies the voter or contains unauthorised signs or insults. The result is posted at the polling station. The procès-verbal is prepared in four copies, sealed and transmitted to the relevant central authority, AIGE, the coordination body and the competent court. Electoral documents and ballots are retained for three months. AIGE publishes provisional results within five days for each polling station. The Constitutional Court handles referendums, presidential elections and National Assembly elections, including complaints and final results. Complaints about local elections go first to the Tribunal administratif and then, on appeal, to the Cour Suprême. Electoral-register disputes follow the competent administrative commission, civil judge or court of appeal. Deadlines are strict: a local result challenge may have a ten-day limit, the administrative court may have one month and the Cour Suprême may have 45 days. The Constitutional Court can annul or reform an election. Candidates and their representatives may observe voting and counting and request that observations or protests be recorded in the procès-verbal. AIGE can accredit national and international observers. Campaign gifts of money or goods, public favouritism, campaigning in places of worship and insulting or defamatory statements are prohibited, as is campaigning on election day.