In yet another blow to democracy in Mali, the country’s Council of Ministers on April 30, 2025, effectively banned all political parties. The previous day, a national conference organized by Mali’s military junta had recommended that Gen. Assimi Goïta remain as president until 2030 and that all political parties be dissolved.
Goïta, who took power in a 2021 coup, has repeatedly promised to hold elections but constantly issued delays, mostly technical, to block the restoration of civilian rule.
The opposition responded by calling for a general meeting on May 3 at the Culture Palace in the capital, Bamako. However, the police blocked participants from entering the venue, leading opposition members to hold the meeting outside, while hundreds of people protested against the junta. At the end of the meeting, at least 80 political parties and two civil society organizations produced a declaration calling for the country to be returned to civilian rule by December 31, 2025, the creation of a timetable for the return to the constitutional order, and the release of political prisoners.
“The power balance has shifted,” Ismaël Sacko, president of the opposition African Social Democratic Party (Parti social-démocrate africain), told me. “People no longer want the military. They want elections and democratic rule.”
Since the coup, Mali’s junta has carried out a relentless assault against the political opposition, civil society groups, the media, and peaceful dissent, shrinking the country’s civic and political space. The authorities had already dissolved several political and civil society organizations, forcibly disappeared political figures and whistleblowers, arbitrarily arrested journalists and political opponents, and forced scores into exile.
The junta’s actions to unilaterally elevate Goïta and to dissolve all political parties should be fully recognized as a power grab to avoid a transition to genuine civilian rule and denies Malians the right to choose their leaders in credible, free and fair elections.
Mali’s regional and international partners have a choice. They can do nothing while Mali’s democracy is extinguished, or they can send a strong message that there will be serious political, economic, and diplomatic consequences if the junta doesn’t change course.
