In February 2008, President Amadou Toumani Touré of Mali asked former minister Daba Diawara to conduct a process of reflexion on the consolidation of democracy in the country. Apparently, this resulted in a document that contained 233 proposed reforms. However, these proposals were not made public. Now, though, a synthesis of the report has been issued. Some of these points are relevant to Mali’s semi-presidential status. There are some nice reviews in French on Constitution en Afrique and on jeuneafrique.com.

In semi-presidential terms, the key elements of the synthesis are that the semi-presidential system should remain in place. (In passing, it is interesting to note that the report explicitly refers to Mali as a semi-presidential system). However, the constitutional operation of the system is perhaps set for a change. The report calls for a revision of the relations between the president and the government. The president should define the policy of the government and the government should merely implement the president’s policies. Currently, the constitution states that the government determines and conducts the policy of the nation (i.e., the same wording as the French constitution). Equally, the report suggests that the president should be free to appoint and dismiss the prime minister. This would transform Mali into a president-parliamentary form of semi-presidentialism. Currently, the constitution, again, has a French-style premier-presidential configuration.

So, if passed, these reforms would alter the nature of semi-presidentialism in Mali quite considerably.