BAMAKO - Mali held the second round of legislatives elections on Sunday with the coalition of the west African countryÂ’s president expected to win a clear majority.As in the first round on July 1, Mali voters appeared to be again proving their reputation as the worldÂ’s most ballot-shy electorate. Turnout early Sunday was very light in the capital and in the main provincial cities, local journalists told AFP. Polls were to close at 1800 GMT. Only 33 percent of eligible voters turned out to cast their ballots in the first round.
Candidates of the Alliance for Democracy and Progress, which backs President Amadou Toumani Toure, are seen as winning as many as 134 seats in the 147-seat parliament.
Toure on Sunday appealed to voters to go to the polls after casting his ballot. He admitted that during the first round “the turnout was not to our satisfaction, especially in Bamako.” Toure said he hoped the second round vote would be better organised and that it would lead “to a much higher turnout.”
Toure was re-elected for a second and final five-year term in April garnering more than 71 percent of votes cast. The opposition made charges of voting irregularities but finally accepted the results and decided to participate in the legislative polls.
The presidential bloc holds 97 seats in the outgoing parliament, while the opposition Front for Democracy and the Republic has the remaining 50.