Mali’s junta leader Colonel Assimi Goita on Tuesday received a draft of a new constitution, an important part of the military’s plan to retain power until 2024, The Africa News.
The preliminary draft constitution has not been made public. The draft has been hand over to Goita two months after it was originally due. The chair of the commission constituted to write it said the deadline had been extended.
In a statement, Mali’s transitional presidency said Fousseyni Samake had warned Goita that any constitution will be subject to challenges, criticism and controversy.
Malian authorities claim that the drafting of a new basic law is one of the reforms needed for the refoundation of the country. They announced the commission in June after extending military rule until 2024, and have said the constitution will be put to a referendum in March 2023.
Mali, a poor and landlocked country in the heart of the Sahel, has seen two military coups since August 2020, when the military ousted elected President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. A second de-facto coup occurred in May 2021, when strongman Goita pushed out an interim civilian government and took over the presidency.
Mali is currently governed by a military junta that came to power in a 2020 coup. Last month, the junta named Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga as the new prime minister, who replaced Choguel Maiga.
Amid pressure from international organizations and West African neighbors in the wake of two coups, Mali’s ruling military junta in early July pledged to hold elections in February 2024 and to hand over power in March of the same year. In return the regime secured an end to the sanctions imposed by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Mali’s military government has also agreed to integrate 26,000 fighters of a past northern rebellion into its national army as part of the 2015 Algiers peace agreement.
