The Malian Constitutional Court validated the coup leader Assimi Goita, the protagonist of last Monday's coup, as the new president of the Republic, replacing the ousted president, Bah Ndaw.
In this way, the Court aims to give a semblance of legality to Monday's coup in Bamako, staged by the same coup leaders who deposed the then president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita (IBK) last August.
In its efforts to legalise the new authorities, the Court is relying on the resignation presented by Bah Ndaw on Monday, in unclear circumstances, given that he was detained in a military compound throughout the day and was only released on Thursday.
According to the Court, the resignation created a power vacuum that needed to be filled immediately, and according to the laws of the Transitional Charter in force in Mali during this transitional period, the person authorised to replace a president is, first and foremost, his vice-president, in this case Colonel Assimi Goita.
It remains to be seen how the new president and the procedure for his appointment will be received by the Malian people, but above all by the Community of West African States (ECOWAS), to which Mali belongs and which has been determined since last August to impose a transitional period on Mali in order to hand over power to civilians.
