UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (Photo: UN)

By  Gary   Raynaldo     DIPLOMATIC   TIMES

UNITED NATIONS  –   NEW  YORK  –  UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on the government of West African nation Mali to announce an “acceptable” vote timetable for holding elections. The UN chief made the comments Thursday after Mali’s transitional authorities proposed to hold elections in December 2025 instead of next month as originally agreed. 

“It is absolutely essential that the government of Mali present an acceptable election timetable. I am working with ECOWAS and with the African Union to create the conditions that can allow the government of Mali to adopt a reasonable and acceptable position to accelerate a transition that has already lasted a long time.”

-UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres 

ECOWAS Imposes Economic,  Diplomatic Sanctions on Mali Government 

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) imposed economic and diplomatic sanctions on Mali after the country’s ruling military government delayed elections by five years. Leaders of the 15-member ECOWAS decided at an Extraordinary Summit on Sunday in Accra, Ghana to  impose additional  sanctions on Mali.  ECOWAS said in a communique the bloc strongly rejects a delay in elections as far as five years as being “totally unacceptable.” 

The additional sanctions, with immediate effect , include the closure of members’ land and air borders with Mali, the suspension of non-essential financial transactions, recall for consultations by ECOWAS Member States of their Ambassadors accredited to Mali and the freezing of Malian state assets in ECOWAS central and commercial banks.

“The Authority finds the proposed calendar for a transition totally unacceptable. This calendar simply means that an illegitimate military transition Government will take the Malian people hostage during the next five years. The Authority reiterates its call for the transition authorities to focus on activities geared towards an expeditious return to constitutional order and to defer key reforms within legitimate elected institutions to be established after the elections. The Authority deeply deplores the obvious and blatant lack of political will from the Transition authorities that led to the absence of any tangible progress in the preparations for the elections, despite the willingness of ECOWAS and all regional and international partners to support Mali in this process.”

-ECOWAS Authority

Mali’s army staged a coup in August 2020, forcing out the elected head of state, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta.