By Mevlut Ozkan
ISTANBUL (AA) - Mali's National Transition Council (CNT) unanimously approved a bill Thursday that revises the Transition Charter, allowing interim President Gen. Assimi Goita to serve a renewable five-year term beginning in 2025, according to the state-run L’Essor website.
A total of 131 CNT members voted in a meeting led by Council President Lt. Gen. Malick Diaw at the Bamako International Conference Center.
It came after the bill was approved by the Council of Ministers in June, following recommendations from a national conference in December 2021, which called for "priority in political and institutional reforms before organizing elections."
The implementation resulted in the adoption of a new Constitution by a June 2023 referendum.
The West African nation’s government set the transition period at 24 months on June 6, 2022, and scheduled a presidential election for Feb. 4 and 18, 2024, but later announced a “slight delay” due to technical reasons.
Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger -- countries facing "the same difficulties" -- established the Confederation of Sahel States on July 6, 2024, following the adoption of the Liptako-Gourma Charter, which created the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) on Sept. 16, 2023.
The confederation has taken bold steps to redefine its international alignment, including recent withdrawals from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF).