Malians head to polls to vote in Presidential-election run-off

People in Mali are set to vote in a Presidential run-off between Prime Minister Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and ex-Finance Minister Soumaila Cisse. Many expect the Prime Minister to beat Mr Cisse; in the first round of the polls Mr Keita, 68, won 40% of the vote, and Mr Cisse, 63, won just 19.7%.  Mr Cisse claimed that there was widespread fraud in the first-round elections, with more than 400,000 ballots declared spoiled. However, Mali's Constitutional Court rejected the allegations. 49% of the 6.8 million registered voters cast a ballot in the first-round vote on 28 July. The election follows more than a year of turmoil which included a coup and a French-led military intervention to oust Islamist rebels from the north; France is currently withdrawing its 3,000 troops, and 12,600-strong United Nations Stabilization Mission is being deployed to the country.