The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), and other leaders of West African countries on Monday called for the resignation of all the 31 members of Mali’s parliament whose elections are being contested as one of the steps aimed at resolving the crisis in the country.

On the part of the executive arm of government, they asked that the national unity government be established without further delay.

These are some of the resolutions reached at a virtual meeting of the Economic Community of West African States Heads of State and Government on the Mali crisis.

Nigeria’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Zubairu Dada, read the outcome of the meeting to State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, from where Buhari joined his colleagues for the meeting.

The communique was signed by the President of Niger Republic, Mahamadou Issoufou, who is also the ECOWAS Chairman.

The communique read in part, “On the parliament, the Heads of State and Government ask all political parties to endeavour to obtain the immediate resignation of all the 31 members of parliament whose election is contested.

“These resignations will pave the way for by-elections. Pending these by-elections, the parliament will operate with the 116 remaining members.

“On the Constitutional Court, the Heads of State and Government ask all the relevant institutions to facilitate its immediate re-composition according to legal provisions in Mali.

“The parliament will propose its representatives after the resignation of the 31 members whose election is contested and the installation of the new bureau.
In case of difficulty for the various bodies in designating their members to the Constitutional Court, the President of the Republic will use the exceptional power provided by Article 50 of the Constitution of Mali to nominate the nine members.

“On the Executive Branch, a National Unity Government will be established rapidly in line with the recommendations of the Mediator. The Heads of States and Government encourage the opposition, in particular, the M5-RFP, to participate in this National Unity Government.”

According to the communique, the main task of the National Unity Government will be to deal with the consequences of the demonstrations and to implement all reforms and recommendations issued from the inclusive national dialogue and to improve governance.

The ECOWAS leaders resolved that the implementation of the Algiers Agreements should be accelerated.