Sawt Falasteen - Mali dissolves political parties in blow to junta critics

Opposition parties have feared the move for weeks, banding together into a hundred-party coalition to demonstrate in an rare act of open defiance since back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021 brought the army to power.

Hours after junta chief General Assimi Goita approved the suspension of a political parties charter, a step on the road to dissolution, the authorities announced the dissolution of "political parties and political organisations".

Read out on national television, the decree likewise bans "all meetings of members of political parties and organisations of a political character".

Yet junta officials working for the Malian state's political and administrative institutions "may pursue their mission without having to identify themselves as representatives of political parties", the decree added.

The latest act of repression comes on the recommendation of a national assembly organised in late April, which was all but boycotted by the opposition.

Besides the suspension of the political parties charter approved by Goita earlier on Tuesday, which allowed for the parties' dissolution, the April assembly also proposed handing the junta chief a five-year renewable presidential term without a vote.

Since the coups, a welter of retaliatory measures, legal proceedings and the dissolution of a swathe of associations have considerably weakened the Malian opposition.

- 'Stop the parties' -

Citing the risk of disturbances to public order, the junta had already suspended all political party activities on May 7, a ban which drew fire from the opposition and calls for repeal from UN experts.

That squeeze on civic space comes against a backdrop of demands by the authorities for the country to unite behind the military, which had originally committed to hand power back to civilians by March 2024 but since reneged on that promise.

Since 2012, Mali has been mired in violence carried out by jihadist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, as well as other criminal organisations.

Fearing dissolution, a coalition of roughly 100 parties recently formed to demand an end to junta rule by December 2025, calling for "the establishment of a timetable for a rapid return to constitutional order".

In a rare act of protest against the junta, the movement drew several hundred people for a demonstration in the capital Bamako in early May.

In an op-ed on Monday, former justice minister Mamadou Ismaila Konate said the junta was attempting "to systematically demolish political countervailing powers" in Mali.

However Malian Director General of Territorial Administration Abdou Salam Diepkile disagreed.

"The repeal of this law does not call into question the existence of political parties," Diepkile told public broadcaster ORTM.

He said the decision was in line with the desire to "stop the proliferation of political parties" in the country.

The junta has suspended French television channel TV5 Monde for a reportage on the May 3 demonstration which the authorities argued "lacked a commitment to impartiality", according to a ruling from Mali's communications regulator.

TV5 Monde has previously fallen foul of the junta, which suspended the channel for three months last year.

Other media from former colonial power France, including France 24 and Radio France Internationale, have been banned permanently.

H.Darwish--SF-PST