Mali goes to polls under threat of Islamist violence

Bamako. Mali is on high security alert as voting for parliamentary elections commenced yesterday, the second nationwide poll since a French military intervention against Islamist militants in the north earlier this year.Mali held a peaceful presidential election in August, but since then there has been a surge in violence.On Thursday, the northern city of Gao came under rocket attack.Extra French troops have been deployed to Kidal, where two French journalists were killed earlier this month.A total of 6.5 million people are registered to take part in the first round of elections to choose a parliament.Voting began at 08:00 GMT in the West African nation.The local United Nations force, Minusma, delivered election materials.Regional and international election observers say everything is in place for a credible parliamentary election and that they expect to have access to 90 per cent of Mali’s polling stations.But in the far northern towns of Kidal and Tessalit, only the party of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita features on ballot papers, according to a correspondent in Bamako.Opposition candidates say it has been too dangerous to campaign there. Three weeks ago two French journalists, Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon, were killed in Kidal, in an attack claimed by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.The resurgence in violence since the presidential election in August suggests Islamists and Tuareg secessionists still have the upper hand in pockets of the country, according to reports.France still has more than 3,000 troops in Mali, where there is also a force of United Nations peacekeepers.Mali’s crisis began early in 2012 when secessionist Tuareg rebels, acting in alliance with Islamist groups linked to Al-Qaeda, swept across the north of the country, forcing 500,000 people to flee their homes.In March 2012, President Amadou Toumani Toure was ousted in a coup, staged by junior officers in protest at the army’s lack of resources to fight the rebels. The rebels then intensified their campaign and controlled two thirds of Mali by January 2013 when France sent 4,500 troops to oust them.The government of Mali and separatist rebels signed a peace agreement in June, paving the way for presidential and parliamentary elections.