Towards a new beginning? –

After years of crisis, the Malian National Youth Council (CNJ) will begin the creation of new institutions and elections to municipal offices throughout the country on July 6, 2024. If the renewal process of Mali’s umbrella youth body gives many hopes for the resumption of its normal activities, certain actors denounce irregularities that are seen as the seeds of a new turbulent tomorrow.

In a press release dated 15 May 2024, the presidents of the regional councils of Kayes, Timbuktu, Gao, Ségou, Sikasso, Koulikoro, Taoudnite, Mopti and Ménaka said that the renewal process of the CNJ institutions was hindered. They rejected the decision made by the Minister of Youth and Sports to launch the program and condemned the “clear desire to exploit Malian youth to achieve an unrecognized agenda”.

But the debate did not last. On May 30, following a meeting between the chairmen of the regional councils and Minister Abdoul Kassim Fomba, the stakeholders reached an agreement to organize the renewal process in a more inclusive way.

The agreement, which ended tensions between the National Committee, the presidents of the regional committees and the presidents of the municipal councils, which were responsible for setting up the CNJ body, contains three specific measures: the involvement of all stakeholders in the process (district, municipal and local presidents), the dissemination of the new text through restitution workshops in the Bamako region and municipalities, and the creation of regional and municipal committees composed of national representatives, members of the outgoing office, experts and representatives of women’s organizations to monitor the updating process.

Old Devil

Therefore, if the process of setting up the CNJ body was carried out according to normal procedures, it would not have been immune to the “irregularities” denounced by some young candidates at the municipal level. In Cais, a group of candidates for the presidency of the town’s municipal council took action on June 23 to oppose attempts by representatives of the Ministry of Youth and Sports to interfere in the electoral process.

According to the organization, the ministry responsible for youth affairs is trying to manipulate the electoral process by appointing a candidate at the municipal level with the aim of weakening other candidates in view of the upcoming regional elections.

“There were nine candidates at the municipal level, but during the counting of votes, all applications except one were rejected. We know that this is a strategy aimed at weakening us before the regional elections,” declared one of the group’s members in a video speech on social networks.

According to him, the local representative of the Ministry of Youth and Sports will ask other youth association leaders to reach a consensus on his candidacy in an attempt to support the candidate.

Moreover, for the collective that requested the restoration of the Municipal Commission “in accordance with the legal provisions and the internal regulations of the CNJ”, the “favorable candidates” are already members of the local independent academy. The electoral management body (AIGE) is alarmed by the text of the structure, which prohibits any member from applying for electoral, political or trade union positions.

Like this collective from Cais, another collective that brings together candidates for posts on the North District Community Youth Council has strongly criticized the electoral process in the commune, denouncing many anomalies. In a video statement on June 29, 2024, the spokesperson of the collective was angry that the municipal council violated the three principles of the CNJ (i.e. diversity, inclusion and fair effort), arguing that many applications for the presidency were rejected “simply because the applicant did not belong to the outgoing position”.

In the commune of Ségou, on the other hand, despite the initial difficulties in the formation of the municipal council, the process seems to be more inclusive. “In order to appoint five representatives of the outgoing municipal office to the municipal council, we had to reach a consensus by selecting two representatives for each existing office and five representatives, given that there are two parallel offices.^th RECOTRADE”, explains Ibrahim Monzon Diarra, Vice-President of the Ségou Urban Commune Council.

“But in other rural communes in the Ségou region, this situation is causing huge problems, because the process that we were able to reach consensus in the urban communes is not continuing in these rural communes. This means that to this day, the counting of application documents remains ineffective in certain rural municipalities,” he admitted.

Chronograph in progress

According to the agreement on May 30, the national committee responsible for the establishment of the CNJ was established and a timetable was drawn up. After that, the submission of application documents by municipal governments at all levels began on May 30 and ended on June 22, 2024. The process continues to count and verify application documents nationwide.

“The process went smoothly. Young people applied in all the municipalities of Mali. The committees studied the documents and published the lists of candidates. The inventory lists included those that had been approved and those that had been rejected, with the reasons. Those that had been rejected had 72 hours to file a complaint. These complaints were studied and some had a favorable outcome, while others did not,” said Sidi Dicko, president of the National Commission for the Establishment of the CNJ Institution.

“The electoral assemblies for municipal offices will be held throughout the country this Saturday, July 6, 2024. Voting will be carried out by post,” he continued. After the elections for municipal offices, the CNJ institutional renewal process will continue with the submission of candidate documents at the regional level between July 7 and 10.

On July 13, 2024, electoral congresses will be held at the regional, Bamako and diaspora levels. The submission of candidate documents at the national level will take place from July 16 to 23, and the electoral congress of the CNJ National Executive Office will be held on Saturday, July 27, 2024.

The rest of the timetable provides for a decision by the Minister in charge of Youth on July 29, 2024 to verify the list of members of the National Executive Office and the Regional, Municipal and Diaspora Offices, followed by a solemn meeting on July 1 to hold a ceremony for the return of elected officials.^yes August.

From now until August 10, the National Commission will work on the preparation of a general report on the establishment of the institution, thus completing the process.