07/28/2013 23:21 GMT
by Frankie Taggart
BAMAKO, July 28, 2013 (AFP) - Mali voted on Sunday for a president expected to usher in a new dawn of peace and stability in the first election since a military coup upended one of the region's most solid democracies.
Voters chose from 27 candidates to lead the nation from the crisis ignited by last year's mutiny, which allowed Islamists to seize the vast desert north before a French-led military intervention dislodged them earlier this year.
Preliminary results collated by journalists in polling stations after end of voting suggested that former premier Ibrahim Boubacar Keita had taken a clear early lead .
The unofficial projection, based on the accounts of reporters watching counts across the country, indicate that Keita, 69, could even cause an upset and win the first round outright.
Voting stations opened at 8:00 am (0800 GMT) under heavy security. On Saturday, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, one of the main armed groups linked to Al-Qaeda in northern Mali (AQIM), said Saturday it would "strike" polling stations.
But there had been no reports of serious incidents as polls closed 10 hours later. An official announcement on the result is not expected until Friday.
Acting president Dioncounda Traore, after casting his ballot in Bamako, called on all candidates to respect the outcome. He did not reveal for whom he had voted.
"I am very satisfied with the general conditions in terms of the organisation of the elections," he said.
"I think that as far as Malians can remember, this is the best-organised election since 1960."
The APEM Network, an independent Malian organisation that deployed 2,100 observers across the nation, reported a strong turn-out among the country's electorate of almost seven million in a statement issued halfway through voting.
"Overall everything went well. There was the enthusiasm among voters," Louis Michel, chief of the European Union election observation mission, told reporters after polls closed.
And a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton welcomed the fact that voting had taken place in "calm and serenity" despite the difficult conditions.
In a polling station at a school in Mali's capital, hundreds of voters queued for more than an hour to cast their ballots.
"We are tired of bad governance. I'd urge the candidates to accept the results of our vote," said machine operator Kalifa Traore, 56.
Polling stations in the restive north opened in an atmosphere of calm, even if the campaign played out in the shadow of violence that has raised doubts over Mali's readiness to deliver a safe and credible election.
Much of the worry ahead of the polls had been focused on Kidal, occupied for five months by Tuareg separatists until a ceasefire accord allowed the Malian army earlier this month to provide security.
Clashes between Tuaregs and black Africans in the run-up to the election left four people dead.
And gunmen thought to be from the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) kidnapped five polling officials 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of Kidal.
-- 'Mali will be the real winner' --
The ballot is the first since the military mutiny in March last year that toppled democratically elected president Amadou Toumani Toure.
The ensuing confusion helped the MNLA, MUJAO and other groups allied to Al-Qaeda to seize northern Mali.
The UN deployment, which will reach 12,600 by the end of the year, allows France to start withdrawing most of the 4,500 troops it sent to Mali in January to stop the Islamists from advancing towards Bamako.
Haidara Aichata Cisse, the only woman in the race, went head-to-head with 26 men, including past premiers Keita, Cheick Modibo Diarra, Modibo Sidibe and Soumana Sacko.
Keita is seen as the main frontrunner alongside Soumaila Cisse, a former chairman of the Commission of the West African Monetary Union.
If no candidate emerges with an overall majority a second round run-off of the two leaders is set for August 11.
"This election will help us forget the nightmare. We will have a head of state elected without ambiguity," Keita said after voting, adding that he felt "confident" of success.
Cisse urged Malians to "turn the page" and "restore peace to republican institutions".
In Gao, northern Mali's largest city, dozens lined up to vote in a school near Independence Square. During the Islamist occupation it had been renamed "Sharia Square".
In the northern desert town of Timbuktu polls went ahead after initial problems with organisation, with many unable to find their names on voting lists.
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