Soumaïla Cissé

Soumaïla Cissé (born December 20, 1949) is a Malian politician who served in the government of Mali as Minister of Finance from 1993 to 2000. He twice stood unsuccessfully as a presidential candidate, in 2002 and 2013; on both occasions he was defeated in a second round of voting. Since 2014 he has been President of the Union for the Republic and Democracy, a political party.

Born in Timbuctu, Soumaïla Cissé studied at l'Institut des Sciences de l'Ingénieur de Montpellier in France to become a software engineer. He worked in several large French companies (IBM-France, le Groupe Pechiney, le Groupe Thomson and the aerospace company Air Inter) before returning to Mali in 1984 to work at the Compagnie malienne pour le développement des textiles (CMDT).

Following the creation of the Alliance for Democracy in Mali (Alliance pour la démocratie au Mali - Parti africain pour la solidarité et la justice, ADEMA-PASJ) and the 1992 election of ADEMA candidate Alpha Oumar Konaré as President, Cissé became the Secretary-General of the Presidency. In 1993, he was named Minister of Finances, then in 2000, Minister of Equipment, Management of Territory, Environment, and Urban Planning in the government of Mandé Sidibé.

Cissé was elected as the Third Vice-President of ADEMA-PASJ at the party's first extraordinary congress, held between November 25 and November 28, 2000. In January 2002, he resigned from the government to devote himself to preparation for the 2002 presidential election, and ADEMA-PASJ selected him as its candidate to succeed Alpha Oumar Konaré. Cissé took second place in the first round of the election with 21.31% of the vote, but he lost to Amadou Toumani Touré in the second round, taking 35.65% of the vote.

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