Armed groups that signed the 2015 peace agreement affirm that the constitutional referendum of June 18th, 2023, was not held in the Kidal region after election observers and political and civil society movements opposed to the referendum.
Gathered within the Permanent Strategic Framework (CSP), the armed group’s signatories to the 2015 peace agreement issued a press release on the night of June 21st to 22nd, 2023 to deny the Independent Election Management Authority (Aige) and ensure that the vote had not taken place in the Kidal region, “In the areas it [le CSP, Ndlr] controls, particularly the Kidal region and almost all the localities in the regions of the North”.
The words of the signatory armed groups are unequivocal, neither the military on June 11th nor the rest of the population on June 18th could take part in the constitutional referendum in these places. The signatory armed groups prevented the holding of the ballot and, to justify it, recall their opposition to a text which does not take sufficient account, in their view, of the Peace Agreement, and the impossibility of reaching a consensus with the transitional authorities before the vote.
Only the “capitals of the regions and circles” of Gao and Timbuktu, and Ménaka city, could be involved in the ballot, continue the armed groups, which immediately ensure that the ballot boxes there “were stuffed without restraint”. No details were given on this serious accusation.
Aige reaffirmed on June 19th that the ballot had indeed taken place in the Kidal region. But whether in this press release, or during its press briefing on June 21st on the turnout, Aige did not provide any explanation on this vote in Kidal, yet already contested by electoral observers and by political parties.