constituteproject.org • Referenda PDF generated: 18 Apr 2016, 15:25 Article 26 The national sovereignty shall belong to the people as a whole who shall exercise it by their representatives or by means of referendum. Article 27 • Secret ballot • Claim of universal suffrage Suffrage shall be universal, equal and secret. • Restrictions on voting Electors shall be, within the conditions determined by law, every citizen of voting age, possessing their civic and political rights. • Right to form political parties Article 28 Parties shall comply with the expression of suffrage. They shall form and exercise freely their activities within the conditions determined by law. They shall respect the principles of national sovereignty, democracy, territorial integrity, national unity and the secularity of the State. TITLE III: THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC • Name/structure of executive(s) Article 29 The President of the Republic shall be the Chief of State. He shall be the guardian of the Constitution. He shall incarnate the national unity. He shall be the guarantor of national independence, territorial integrity, respect of treaties and international agreements. He shall assure the regular function of public powers and the continuity of the State. Article 30 • Head of state selection • Head of state term length The President of the Republic shall be elected for five years by direct universal suffrage and by an absolute majority of the votes cast. If this is not obtained on the first ballot there shall be a second ballot. • Head of state term limits He shall be re-eligible only once. • Eligibility for head of state Article 31 Every candidate for the Presidency of the Republic shall be of native Malian nationality and in possession of all his civic and political rights. Article 32 The presidential elections shall be at least twenty one days and not more than forty days before the expiration of the mandate of the current President. Mali 1992 Page 7