Lafia village in the northern region of Timbuktu – unidentified gunmen burn polling stations and ballot boxes- resultantly, voting could not take place.
The northern region of Kidal – 10 mortar shells fired at a polling station in a village, according to Olivier Salgado, Spokesperson for the United Nations Mission in Mali, MINUSMA. Voting briefly suspended.
This was after around 30,000 security personnel were deployed throughout the country. The outbreak of violence marred the 2018 Presidential elections in Mali.
“Overnight Saturday, armed men arrived at the town hall where the ballot boxes and electoral material were held,” according to the AFP news agency.
The official added the boxes were burned after shots were fired into the sky. “One of them said ‘God does not like elections’.”
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However, Mali’s national broadcaster ORTM reported a large turnout of voters in the capital. Notably, eight million voters were registered for Sunday’s election, a total of 23,000 polling stations opened at 08:00 GMT and closed at 18:00 GMT.