Ex-Finance Minister Soumaila Cisse said he had congratulated his rival Keita on winning the vote and wished him good luck, the AFP reported on Monday.
Cisse’s concession, hours after he complained the election had been marred by fraud, will deepen optimism for Mali’s recovery.
Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris, reporting outside Keita’s headquarters in Bamako, said the news of his win was just filtering in and there seem to be celebrations already taking place as some international observers were seen congratulating Keita.
“The general feeling here is that people are actually happy that this has come to a peaceful end, and that Mali finally has a president,” he said.
Keita, a former prime minister, inherits a broken nation and must still negotiate peace with northern rebels.
No official results have yet been released following Sunday’s runoff, however, reports had put Keita well ahead.
Keita had been widely expected to win Sunday’s vote, having swept the July 28 first round with nearly 40 percent of votes on a ticket to restore order after a March 2012 military coup allowed separatist rebels to seize control of the northern two-thirds of Mali.
Cisse said earlier on Monday that the vote had been tainted by intimidation. However, international and local observers said that, despite small irregularities, the process had been credible.
‘Important stage’
“This election, from a democratic standards point of view, is a success,” said the head of a EU observer mission, Louis Michel.
Source: Agencies
