On Nov.,1968, a group of officers staged a bloodless coup and set up a 14-member Military Committee for natinal liberation (CMLN),with Moussa Traore as president. But due to internal disturbances and a severe draught in Saheli the could not proceed. A new constitution , approved in 1974, created a one party state for running a civilian rule, though the military leaders remened in power. In Sept. 1976, a new political party was established , Democratic Union of the Malian People (UDPM), based on the concept of "democratic centralism". An election was held in June1979 and Gen Moussa Traore received 99 % of the votes. He suppressed a stdent-led movement brutally and also three other coups. The political situation remained stabilised in 1980s but soon a border dispute started over the mineral rich Agacher strip leading to a brief war The UDPM extendedits structure to Cercles and Arrondissements across the land.
By 1990s growing dissatisfaction, accelerated by the introduction of IMF economic reforms unrest, periodic armed clashes resulted in 4 days of intenseanti-govt. rioting by a group of 17 military officers. within a few day they joined the Coordinating Committee of Democratic associations to form a 25-member ruling body and on June 1992, Alpha Oumar Konare ( a scientist and a writer)inaugurated as the president of the Mali's Third republic. A multi-party democracy was installed and Konare became the elected president in April, 2002.
