ECOWAS leaders reject Malian opposition forces’ demand for president’s resignation

The leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Monday insisted that the Malian President, Ibrahim Keita, would not step aside as demanded by opposition forces in the country.

Keita has so far spent two out of his five-year second term in office.

But a resistance group, M5, had demanded the dissolution of the Constitutional Court and the president’s resignation before peace can return to the country.

The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Zubairu Dada, who spoke to State House correspondents on the resolutions of the leaders at the end of the ECOWAS virtual meeting, however, said the meeting endorsed a government of national unity.

He disclosed that the meeting also endorsed the cancellation of the 31 disputed parliamentary seats and called fresh elections to fill the seats.

Dada said: “The resolutions of the meeting of the Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS stressed the importance of the need to respect the institutions of the republic especially the constitutional means of acceding to power in conformity to with the ECOWAS protocol, democracy, and good governance.

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“This is important because the opposition was making a demand for the resignation of the president and the ECOWAS position is `that it is a no go area.’ The leaders insisted that no head of state shall be removed other than through constitutional means.

“It has also resolved that the parliament, because if you remember the crisis actually started from the elections of March this year which gave rise to a lot of crises in the country because of 31 disputed seats

“Therefore, the meeting has resolved that for these 31 seats that are in contention, the members involved should be asked to resign to make rooms for a fresh election into these 31 seats that are the source of contention.”

The minister also revealed that the leaders asked all political parties to demand the immediate resignation of the 31 members of parliament whose election is contested.

According to him, the lawmakers’ resignation will pave the way for by-elections

“Pending these by-elections, the Parliament will operate with the 116 remaining members,’’ he concluded.

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