Mali's presidential runoff ends

Mali's presidential candidate Ibrahim Boubacar Keita casts his vote during the second round of presidential elections in Bamako, August 11, 2013. [Photo/Agencies]

Ibrahima Sangho, spokesman of Mali's Pole of Electoral Observation, told Xinhua that "in Kidal, all goes on well. People vote normally, the same in Gao and Timbuktu".

According to a communique issued by this organisation, "89.9 percent of the polling stations have been opened on time. Compared to that of the first round (96 percent), the lower rate of the second round could be explained by the heavy rain notably experienced in the regions of Bamako, Kouliko and Kayes."

"At the opening moment, 90.7 percent of the stations' personnel were present. The essential of documents and materials were in place, which allowed an effective kick-off of the operations," said the spokeswoman.

In Timbuktu, an ancient city in the north of Mali once seized by al-Qaida-linked rebels who were driven out later by French and Malian troops, the regional governor Mamadou Mangara announced that he is satisfied with the good conduct of the operations of vote.

At the polling station of Fundamental school of Mamadou Gondo, in the area of Badalabougou in Bamako, where Soumaila Cisse voted at around 9:15, an incident occurred in mid-day when militants supporting Cisse questioned the management of the vote.

"The president and assessors (of the bureau) act against the delegate of Soumaila Cisse, rejecting the later's request to verify the identity of voters," said Hamidou Traore, representative of the Alliance for Democracy in Mali (ADEMA), an ally party of Cisse's Union for the Republic and Democracy (URD).

The young militant told Xinhua that rumor said 1.9 million fraudulent polling cards have been made in favor of IBK, that's why the delegate of Cisse felt obligatory to check the photo in the cards to verify that it is the same face of the holder of the card.

With agitation created by this incident, President of the Commission of the Economic Community of Western African States (ECOWAS)  Kadre Desire Ouedraogo, had been called on for an arbitrage by the angry Protestants.

ECOWAS has deployed 150 observers headed by former president of Ghana, John Kufuor, to oversee this election.

IBK, the 68-year-old leading candidate, cast his vote at about 10: 40 at the center of Sebeninkoro Ecole AB, in the 4th commune of Bamako, where a deployment of security measures is visible outside as well as inside.

Shortly after the voting, IBK told press at his residence that, if he is elected, he will form a government which will "make sure that our whole country gets back onto the base of unity".

IBK has garnered 39.97 percent of the votes in the first round held on July 28, largely ahead of his rival Soumaila Cisse, who got 19.70 percent. He had this favorable position consolidated following the announcement of results of the first round, as 20 of the 25 eliminated candidates of the first round chose to support his candidature in the second round.

For the outgoing president of transition, the conduct of Sunday's is "satisfying". "The voters have voted freely, in mass," said Traore when answering a question by Xinhua.

"I think we can say that the transition has been a success. Now we will enter a new phase, the phase of reconstruction of the Malian State and the unification of the Malian people," he said.