Mali's President Keita casts vote in presidential election The incumbent president of Mali, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, 71, casts his vote in the presidential election in a crowded field of 24 candidates -- just one of them a woman -- bidding for the five-year presidency. 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