“Congratulations to the Constitutional Court for playing its role and I encourage it to work towards the independence of the judiciary, a major guarantor of democracy.” These are the words that former Malian Prime Minister Moussa Mara Yelema spoke on Facebook on April 25.
A few days earlier, the Constitutional Court of Mali had made public a judgment linked to a request from the President of the Transition concerning the “benefits, compensation, and other treatments” paid to the 147 members of the National Transitional Council (CNT), in addition to their salaries.
She declared this law, voted unanimously and discreetly by the CNT, to be unconstitutional and published her decision in the official journal on April 22.
The National Transition Council reframed by the Court
“In the Malian context, this is a very good thing. This is an important decision for Mali which is in a context of insecurity and also a context of political instability”explains Mohamed Amara, Malian sociologist, author of the book “Merchants of anxiety, Mali as it is, as it could be” Editions Grands Vaux, published in 2019.
For him, the fact that “those who serve as legislators therefore allow themselves to pass a law to increase their compensation” is proof of their “human indecency”.
“The word is strong but this decision comes at a time of a political crisis, where nothing is going well in the country. The CNT is supposed to organize an inter-Malian dialogue to bring peace and allows itself to pass on the sly an increase in compensation for its members, while a good part of the territory suffers from problems of access to water or “food insecurity”he laments.
Some of the articles were declared to be in conformity with the Constitution, notably articles 2 and 3 which concerned the payment of salaries for the President of the CNT and the members of the CNT.
What poses a problem and shocked public opinion like the former Prime Minister, is in particular article 8 which provided that “amounts and terms of allocation of compensation, benefits and other salaries to members of the National Transitional Council are determined by an internal regulatory act of the President of the National Council”. In other words, let this be decided with a certain opacity.
Other articles, such as 4, detailed the compensation that members of the CNT could receive by decision of the president of this institution.
For a Source close to the CNT, the Facebook publication of former Malian Prime Minister Moussa Mara is erroneous to say the least. “It was not a question of asking for increases for 2024, but of adopting an organic law which took the CNT out of legal limbo on these questions”.
This “legal vagueness” suggests that these bonuses have been paid without a legal framework since the start of the CNT. Indeed, article 7 of the law, also rejected by the Constitutional Court, stipulated that the law “governed the benefits, compensation and other salaries of members of the National Transitional Council since its establishment”. It is precisely this mention of retroactivity which poses a problem for the Constitutional Court.
What is the position of the Constitutional Court on the Transition?
According to sociologist Mohamed Amara, the Constitutional Court of Mali needs to improve its image. And to remind the “legislative dispute” behind the fall of former president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. Indeed, in 2020, IBK renewed the entire Constitutional Court, just after the legislative elections, in a context of protests linked to the controversial final results.
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For Mohamed Amara, it is clear that this rejection of the law is a call to order towards the CNT. “The Constitutional Court does everything not to be on the sidelines of Mali’s history. She also wants to show that she is not a simple sounding board, contrary to what some people think. This decision could be the starting point for rectifying the trajectory of the Malian transition and moving towards the organization of credible and transparent democratic elections”he concludes.
The fact remains that, in two subsequent judgments delivered on April 25, the Constitutional Court did not rule on the transition about which it had been referred.
Indeed, on the one hand, she declared herself “incompetent” to examine a complaint seeking the annulment of the decision taken by the junta to suspend party activities. On the other hand, the court declared “inadmissible” a separate request from organizations of magistrates and prosecutors to note a “institutional void” in Mali and the establishment of a new transition followed by elections.
According to Me Oumar Berté, associate researcher at the University of Rouen in politics and public law, quoted by RFI, “It was a great opportunity for the Court to establish its credibility in the eyes of Malian citizens and to gain the trust of the people.. The Court should have ruled on the decree setting the transition at 24 months from March 26, 2022. And I think I am not the only one! Many Malians would have liked to hear the Court’s legal analysis, which unfortunately it did not have the courage to do.”
