Ex-Prime Minister Keita Holds Wide Lead In Mali Vote

Malian former Prime Minister Ibrahim Boubacar Keita holds a comfortable lead and could win an outright first round victory in a critical presidential election, the West African nation’s minister of territorial administration said on Tuesday.

“After one third of votes counted, one candidate, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, has a wide margin compared with the other candidates,” Colonel Moussa Sinko Coulibaly told journalists in the capital Bamako.

“If maintained, (it means) there will not be a need for a second round,” Coulibaly told a news conference in Bamako.

REUTERS