Elections in Mali

Mali elects on the national level a head of state – the president – and a legislature. The president is elected for a five-year term by the people. The National Assembly has 160 members, elected for a five-year term, 147 members elected in single-seat constituencies and 13 members elected by Malians living abroad.

Political parties

Mali has a multi-party system, with numerous parties in which no one party often has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties must work with each other to form coalition governments.

Gender parity

On 12 November 2015, the National Assembly voted in favour of a gender parity law requiring at least thirty percent of elected or appointed officials to be women. The law was ratified the following month as Law 2015-052 of 18 December 2015.