Mali: Polls open for the presidential election Mali heads to the polls with incumbent president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, who took office in 2013, and opposition frontrunner Soumaila Cisse expected to be the two main candidates in a field of 24 hopefuls. More than eight million Malians go to the polls in a key electoral test for the fragile Sahel state, battling a wave of ethnic violence and jihadism. IMAGES