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Mali has been under military rule since August 2020, the first
of eight coups in West and Central Africa over four years,
including in its neighbors Burkina Faso and Niger.
Regional blocs have been trying to negotiate transitions but the
interim governments are dragging their feet.
Mali's current junta seized power in a second 2021 coup and
later promised to take 24 months from March 2022 to restore
civilian rule, with a start date of March 26, 2024 and elections
in February.
It passed a new electoral law in June 2022, but said in
September last year that it would postpone February elections
for technical reasons, sparking outrage among political groups.
Many reacted again after last month's transition deadline lapsed
without a vote.
In a joint statement late on Sunday, some of Mali's main
political parties and civil society groups called on authorities
to set up an institutional framework for polls as soon as
possible.
"We will use all legal and legitimate avenues for the return of
normal constitutional order in our country," they said in the
statement, which has over 20 signatories, including a major
opposition coalition and the toppled ex-president's party.
The junta has not reacted.
Mali's military rulers already failed on a first promise to hold
elections in February 2022, prompting stiff sanctions from the
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
That damaged relations with former colonial power France, which
withdrew forces in 2022 that had been fighting a spiralling
12-year-old Islamist insurgency in the region.
ECOWAS, West Africa's main political and economic body,
eventually lifted Mali's sanctions after the new electoral law
was published.
Junta-led Chad is meanwhile scheduled to hold the first round of
a presidential election next month in what would be the first of
the region's military governments to restore constitutional
rule.
(Reporting by Fadima Kontao; Writing by Sofia Christensen;
Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
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