JOHANNESBURG—Expectations for Mali’s presidential election were so low that nearly everyone was pleasantly surprised when the vote passed peacefully, with perhaps half of eligible voters participating.

With security tight at polling booths Sunday, there were no violent attacks despite threats from an Al Qaeda-linked militia. And, with the country’s peace and stability at stake, the 50 per cent turnout estimated by European Union observers was higher than past election turnouts of around 40 per cent. Turnout in the country’s troubled north, however, was lower.

Former prime minister Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was leading the vote count, according to Malian state-owned television. If he does not win more than 50 per cent of the vote, a runoff will be held next month.

His rivals said they were sure a runoff would be needed.

The election was the first in Mali since a rebellion and coup last year. France, which sent in troops to oust violent Islamist militias after they seized half of the country last year, congratulated Mali on a successful election.

Despite recent calls by the International Crisis Group to delay the election so that it could be better organized, Malian officials pressed ahead, hoping that the vote would be credible enough to return the country to peace, democracy and stability. Two days before the vote, the head of the EU observer mission, Louis Michel, declared that the conditions required for a credible vote had been met.

“No major incidents were reported even though there were some imperfections,” Michel told journalists in Bamako on Monday, according to Reuters. “But none of these incidents, none of these imperfections could jeopardize the legitimacy of the results.”

However, there were several problems with Sunday’s vote that could raise questions about the election’s legitimacy, particularly in the north. News agencies reported the election was poorly organized and in many cases voters couldn’t find their names on voter rolls. Turnout was low in the key northern city of Kidal, which both Malian authorities and Tuareg rebels occupy under the terms of a tenuous peace deal.

Also, several hundred thousand northern Malian refugees who fled their homes during last year’s fighting were excluded from the vote.

If Mali’s north doesn’t accept the election as credible and legitimate, the country is likely to remain politically divided, and the fractures that led to last year’s crisis will remain, undermining the transition to a peaceful democracy that the election is supposed to bring.

Meanwhile, former finance minister Soumalia Cisse, seen as Keita’s strongest challenger, said he would contest the results if there was no run-off.

“Across Bamako, there was organized fraud. Fraud is fraud, there is no such thing as small fraud,” he told Reuters.

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