Rally for Mali

The Rally for Mali (French: Rassemblement pour le Mali) is a Malian political party created by Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta (a former president of Mali) in June 2001. In 2013, Keita was elected President of Mali following several unsuccessful attempts, and the party took first place in parliamentary elections, winning 66 seats, although not enough for a majority. In October 2000, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, the former prime minister of Mali, resigned from incumbent President Alpha Oumar Konaré's party, the Alliance for Democracy in Mali-African Party for Solidarity and Justice (ADEMA-PASJ), over which he had presided since 1994. With activists and executives in tow, Keïta created the movement Alternative 2002 in February 2001 to back his bid for president. The Rally for Mali followed in June. In the first round of the presidential election, held in April 2002, Keïta won 21.04% of the vote, finishing third, after the official candidate of the ADEMA-PASJ, Soumaïla Cissé, and the winner, Mali's next president, Amadou Toumani Touré. Along with the National Congress for Democratic Initiative (Congrès national d’initiative démocratique) (CNID) and the Patriotic Movement for Revival (Mouvement patriotique pour le renouveau) (MPR), Rally for Mali was part of the Hope 2002 coalition (Espoir 2002) for the 2002 legislative elections. After those elections, Rally for Mali became the second biggest political party in Mali, with 45 deputies.