Mali’s junta on Wednesday suspended political parties’ activities “until further notice for reasons of public order”, as the opposition protests against the military government’s ramped-up crackdown on dissent.Read out on national television and radio, the decree comes ahead of a rally called for Friday by parties critical of the junta against their dissolution, as well as for a return to constitutional order in the insecurity-ridden Sahel nation.All “associations of a political character” were covered in the decree signed by junta leader General Assimi Goita.The latest measure constitutes a new act of repression of dissenting voices along with a shrinking of civic space in the west African country, ruled by the military since two coups, in 2020 and 2021.On April 30, authorities announced the repeal of a law governing the operation of political parties, a decision which legal experts interpreted as a step towards their dissolution.Fearing that, a coalition of roughly one hundred parties formed to “demand the effective end of the political-military transition no later than December 31, 2025” and demand “the establishment of a timetable for a rapid return to constitutional order.”Just prior to the repeal, a national consultation organised by the regime in Bamako on April 28 and 29, largely boycotted by opposition parties, recommended the outright abolition of political parties.It further proposed proclaiming General Goita as president for a renewable five-year term, without an election.The new coalition mobilised several hundred people during a demonstration last Saturday in Bamako before security forces intervened.Their public calls for democracy and against dictatorship constituted a rare act of protest since the junta came to power.In 2024, the authorities had already suspended the activities of political parties for three months.Freedom of expression and to form parties were enshrined in Mali’s constitution in 1992, when the country returned to civilian rule, and the junta announced a new constitution in 2023 with the same principles.- Risk of reprisals -Despite the risk of reprisals, Mali’s political class has spoken out to avoid completely disappearing, as parties have in Burkina Faso and Niger, neighbouring states also under military rule.The twin coups have seen the opposition considerably weakened by a welter of retaliatory measures, legal proceedings, the dissolution of a swathe of associations against a backdrop of clamour by the authorities for the country to unify behind the military.Since 2012, the country has been mired in violence carried out by jihadist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, as well as other criminal groups.Multiparty politics, as well as freedoms of expression and association, are guaranteed by the Malian constitution of 1992, and were reaffirmed in the new fundamental law promulgated in 2023.Along with Niger and Burkina Faso, Mali now forms part of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) with the trio having quit the West African bloc, ECOWAS.Human rights organisations accuse the three junta-led states of suppressing dissent on the pretext of battling jihadists.
