Fifteen years of multiparty democracy in Mali has failed to galvanise voters in the poverty-stricken west African nation, who enjoy the dubious honour of being the world’s most ballot-shy electorate.
Last week’s presidential election garnered a turnout of around 36% — actually a comparatively high figure given Mali’s past record.
The Swedish-based democracy advocacy group, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (Idea), places Mali firmly at the bottom of a ladder of 172 countries ranked in terms of poll participation.
Average turnout in all elections was just 21,7%, according to the Idea table, putting it below Egypt and Djibouti.
Since the introduction of multiparty democracy in the early 1990s, Mali has never managed to break though the 50% turnout barrier for any poll.
Things started off promisingly enough when a 1992 constitutional referendum — the first poll organised since the fall of military dictator Moussa Traore — drew 43,5% of registered voters.
But in the presidential election just months later, that figure plunged to 25%, where it remained for the 1997 presidential poll.
Things improved slightly for the 2002 election, with turnouts of 38% and 30% in the two rounds of voting.
Mamadou Samake, a professor in political sociology at the University of Bamako, offered two reasons for the trend — one personal and one technical.
”Sociologically, Malians are not interested in politics,” Samake said.
”This country is founded on trade and 80% of the population live on informal activity, which is not really subject to political evolutions,” he said.
”Each one is concerned about their survival, irrespective of who’s the president.”
At the same time, Samake stressed that many Malians were simply unaware that they were eligible to vote.
”Mali automatically registers all voters of 18 years or older.
However, many do not even know that they are registered,” he said.
”Further, this roll is slightly inflated because of double registrations of voters in censuses,” he said, explaining that some individuals have been listed more than once.
Moreover, the names of voters who have died are not always deleted.
A senior official in the elections directorate said the high abstention rate was due to a ”lack of interest” and the fact that the results are, in many voters’ minds, ”known in advance”.
He also pointed to the large number of people who live kilometres from polling stations in this vast and arid country sitting on the edge of the Sahara desert.
”The numbers of polling stations were reviewed upwards, but was not very rationally done. Some people live far away from polling stations,” he said.
To improve the low turnout problem, Samake suggested scrapping the automatic registration system for a voluntary one, ”because somebody who willingly registers is more likely to vote”.
”Malians are not aware that the ballot box is a weapon to change things,” he added. – Sapa-AFP