In front of foreign diplomats, Malian Prime Minister Choguel Maïga made it clear that his government’s priority is to organize the National Conferences. These meetings will begin at the grassroots level over a few weeks before a major meeting of all the nation’s active forces in Bamako. “We must not have a botched transition,” he said at the meeting.
He then, without giving too many details, gave the continuation of his plan. After the announced National Conferences, there are reforms to be carried out. And they must be set in stone, he said.
Only after these steps will the elections take place. And no date for the moment. If the elections were to be held at the end of February 2022, it would be difficult to see how they could be held, since the process has not been launched in order to respect the prerequisites, the acts necessary to respect the law.
How will the Malian Prime Minister manage to convince? Some political parties, including some heavyweights, have already announced that they will not participate in the National Conferences, believing that the priority for the transition team is to organize the elections at the end of February 2022 as planned.