Keita re-elected Mali president with landslide victory in runoff ballot

Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has been re-elected for a five-year term after winning a landslide victory in a runoff ballot, according to official figures on Thursday.

The elections have been closely watched abroad, as Mali is a linchpin state in the jihadist insurgency raging in the Sahel.

Keita, 73, picked up 67.17 percent of the vote on Sunday against 32.83 for opposition challenger Soumaila Cisse, 68, who also ran against Keita in 2013, the government announced. Turnout was low, at 34.5 percent.

Mali, a landlocked nation home to at least 20 ethnic groups where most people live on less than $2 a day, has been battling a years-long Islamic revolt that has fueled inter-communal violence.

Hundreds of people have died this year alone, most of them in Mopti, an ethnic mosaic in central Mali, in violence involving the Fulani nomadic herder community and Bambara and Dogon farmers.

Keita’s response to the burgeoning security crisis was the big campaign issue, with opposition candidates rounding on him for alleged incompetence or indifference.

But the verbal assaults failed to dent his core support, and a fractured opposition as well as widespread voter apathy left him firm favorite in the final round.

Voting was also marred by jihadist attacks that forced the closure of a small percentage of polling stations, and by allegations of ballot-box stuffing and other irregularities.

The three main opposition candidates mounted a legal challenge to the first-round result, but their bid was rejected by the Constitutional Court.

Keita will take office on September 4, facing high expectations to boost a 2015 peace accord between the government, government-allied groups and former Tuareg rebels. The credibility of the deal – billed by Keita as the cornerstone of peace – has been battered by a state of emergency that heads into its fourth year in November.

Another challenge for Keita is to shore up the economy. Income per capita has fallen since 2014, according to the World Bank, and nearly half of the 18 million population live in poverty.