EU Hopes Mali Vote Will Match Presidential Poll 'Success'

The head of the EU electoral observer team in Mali said Thursday he hoped a parliamentary poll next month would match the "success" of August's presidential election.

Mali will on November 24 hold its first parliamentary elections since a military coup last year which led to a sweeping Islamist occupation and a French-led military intervention.

Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, a former prime minister, was sworn in as president on September 4 after winning a second-round August 11 in a country emerging from conflict.

The European Union's Louis Michel said he hoped the legislative elections would "confirm the irrefutable success of the presidential election," citing strong voter turnout and the "quality of voting operations".

The EU recommended improvements in voting conditions for some 500,000 displaced people and refugees who fled conflict in northern Mali in 2012.

Few of them were able to vote during the presidential poll because of the last-minute organization of elections in refugee camps in neighboring countries and in displaced persons' camps inside Mali.

About 100 EU observers will monitor the vote, the same number as for the presidential poll.

"We really need to understand that these legislative elections are ultimately more sensitive than the presidential poll, because there are more candidates, and since there are more candidates, the EU electoral observer mission must necessarily carry out more work to follow up," Michel said.