Mali’s military junta have decided to push back the scheduled February elections to a later date due to technical issues.
The delay comes after two coups and was already a two-year postponement from the original plan set by Mali’s temporary government.
Reuters reported that the junta stated that the delay would be brief and was caused by several factors, including a dispute with a French company over a database used for civil records.
Technical challenges leading to election delay
They accused the international firm IDEMIA, which had provided a civil identification system known as RAVEC to the previous government, of withholding access to their database since March because of unpaid bills.
The situation is preventing the registration of new eligible voters and the updating of the voter list. The junta further revealed that this was slowing down the introduction of a new biometric identity card.
IDEMIA confirmed that it had discontinued its services due to unpaid invoices and stated that it had no contract with Mali’s temporary government, according to the reports by Reuters.
The junta has announced plans to transfer their current civil identification data to a new system “exclusively under Malian control” according to the statement released by the Malian military leadership.
The West African political and economic organisation, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), has not yet responded to this announcement by the Malian junta.
ECOWAS has been leading negotiations with Mali and other West African countries affected by coups to reestablish democratic governance within reasonable timeframes.
