Mali steps up pre-election security

Rebel group threatens to strike polling stations as West African nation gears up for elections.

Millions of Malians are expected to vote in elections they hope will usher in a new era of peace and stability in a country torn apart by an 18-month political crisis and armed conflict.

Voters will have a choice of 27 candidates on Sunday as they go to the polls for the first time since a separatist uprising led to a coup and then a sweeping religious offensive last year which upended one of the region’s most stable democracies.

Security has been stepped up in the run-up to the poll, as one rebel group has threatened to strike polling stations.

Al Jazeera’s Nazanine Moshiri reports from the Malian capital Bamako.

Source: Al Jazeera