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>> renewed peace talks in washington, israel and the palestinians sitting around the table. the negotiations have been blocked since 2010. silence after italy's worst accident in decades. a bus plunged from a flyover. investigators are trying to piece together what went wrong. in nigeria, at least for people are reported dead. scores were wounded after an explosion rocked a christian area. gunmen have shot dead soldiers

[inaudible] the army declared the mountain cleared of extremists and was a campaign that cost three lives and left 27 soldiers injured. the 100 million -- one of the biggest jewelry thefts ever. stay with us on "france 24." >> welcome back. we are discussing the situation in mali. the first round of voting has passed without incident, but not everyone is convinced this means the country is on the footing towards he's in prosperity the people are craving. some people think this is the beginning of another period of instability.

that introduce you to our guests. you did not vote in the election, did you? that is one voice which was not heard. that is president of the young malian civic society. you did not vote either, which is a shame. two voice is not heard. we have the senior analyst from the european institute for security studies. thank you for being with us. ed wardle, pleasure to see you, too. -- edvaruardo, pleasure to see you, too. he is unconvinced by this

election and very much pushing for a different makeup to the north of mali. let's bring in our correspondent who has been covering these elections for us. bringing us every development as it has happened. can you give us a sense about what people have been saying about this election? is there an element of optimism? are people unconvinced by what will happen next? >> people were keen to get to the polling stations. we are starting to get a sense from the pronouncements made by the observer groups deployed throughout this election for what has been -- participation levels are higher than people thought. that first part of the test, the measure of how successful this election has been, seems to have gone well.

we have no official figures. we are waiting to hear from the authorities, the ministry in charge of this election. for now, it has not pronounced itself. turnout was quite strong. in that sense, this was a vote that is a year overdue, this was an opportunity to get back to the polling stations, back to the ballot boxes. it was him directed -- it was interrupted by the coup d'état in march of last year. there has been something of a pause in politics, which has now come to an end. the main parties include heavyweight candidates of the heavy duty party machinery. each of them, the two main candidates, have already been presidential candidates in the

past. their party machinery's are very keen to see them get back into power. with this information void, the inevitable has happened. each site has been spinning news of its own victory through the unofficial results. we are going to hear a press conference by a gathering to talk about the problems they feel have happened over the last few hours. some activists have celebrated prematurely. >> thank you very much for putting that into context for us. let's bring our guests in the studio. they did not get to vote, which is a sad thing.

who do you see as the right person? >> if i had the chance to vote, i would not vote for these two guys. i think they are here since the beginning of our democratic history. the result of the management of the country,. he was prime minister during many years. he was also minister of finance.

i would like a young malian. i would like to see someone new, someone fresh, someone who has a vision for the country. maybe he will do what i wish for my country. >> he is not the person you would have voted for. >> these two have already been in place for a very long time. they are part of the old system.

there are not many candidates that are at the level of these two. although this result might not be the best, i think one of these two candidates -- both of these candidates actually have in possession the people, the to change if their point is to change. >> do you trust either of them? >> it will no longer be able to leave the country as they have in the past. the result might --

>> he was overthrown by the coup d'état back in march 2012. i sense you are not convinced fight you thereof the two main candidates. you do not trust them at all. there has to be some acceptance from your side because you need to negotiate for someone to get what you want. >> these people still say this problem will be solved. we have to sit down and and there is no problem in the

north. this problem has been going on for half a century now. the main problem -- you do not follow the time and keep saying, this problem will be solved and we need to raise the money -- we need to bring the molly ends altogether. -- molly ends -- malians. the main problem isheg. who was the majority? who was when the majority when not tuareg people? we cannot keep saying all of these things. whoever is going to be in power has to realize the problem has to be solved, not by the way the

players -- this is a minority people, we have to ignore them. >> would you rip that up? would you turns towards violence? >> it is a peaceful movement, but it has been ignored unfortunately. many are in jail for nothing because they are protesting peacefully. >> i need to tell you that there are people that disagree with you. >> they are standing on the other side. you have to look at the history. >> that is the reality of mali. there are these elements that are separate and they need to be

separate. is that what you are saying? >> we have two separate these issues. the main problem is that tuareg and you have to solve that. the problem will come back again and again unless the main problem has been solved. >> if our only problem was tuareg, we would say thanks, god, today. unfortunately, we do not just have a tuareg problem. we have a problem in our army, we have social problems, and environment of youth. we have many problems. we are a poor country. we have a different challenge to face, to cope with. people will want to separate and say, we are as we are, we are a group and we do not want to be part of this movement.

i do not agree. i know i have some friends who are tuareg who want to move forward and be part of the country. we are not saying we have just to bring together and sit down at the table and say let's talk and everything is going to be good. no. we have to say the truth. yes, some people face violence. women in the north of the country have endured. we have many problems. >> injured. >> we have to say truth because some people did bad things and they have to be -- they have to

face the responsibility. together, we have to do this job. we are going to do it. >> i think that word that you used three times, the truth, is of vital importance. it is time to bring in james, who is watching things online for us. to get an assessment of what has been said about this debate. good to see you, sir. what have you found? >> there is a degree of optimism, but a certain amount of fear. a french-speaking african youth website, they interviewed the governor in the north of the country, where the tuareg has

been a lot more than the south. he is saying there was only one voter in some booths. one of the main news websites, soldiers stopped and searched every single person who came in to vote. he is painting a picture of a chance -- tense scene. there were a group of 60 people out there demonstrating. it is not exactly -- >> the aspect of security has been a vital thing. what are your thoughts about that? >> the security aspect as far as we been able to tell, we do not

have an incident. we do not have an attack. it has not been a bad day if we have the headlines -- >> you did not get to vote, not such a good day. the one place you found, one vote. >> tengion in timbuktu. -- tension in timbuktu. a lot of the being expressed elsewhere. this is the interim president speaking, the best election since independence in 1960. >> i suppose he would say that. >> lots of photos as well making it onto a reuters article. you are seeing similar photos, a tuareg voter, if i am not mistaken.

another voter with ink on their fingers. the participation of women in the actual process. photos like that paint a positive picture. it is not all optimism. it depends on what news source you go to. that was a phrase used by the french defense minister. an unfortunate expression that he used. the early election, the fact that this has happened six months after the initial beginning of the conflict, was perhaps to prevent more grassroots elements from establishing themselves, to legitimize france's involvement. not everyone is so pessimistic. this is taken from -- he starts

the article by saying -- by quoting the french national anthem. mali's day of glory has arrived. this is a very positive event. be careful, he lists off a couple of things to watch out for. politicians calling the results to early. everybody has a responsibility to respect the process and to return the country to a degree of morality -- plurality and constitutionality. >> fine words. good to see you, thank you for joining us. do you think it is important to do that, to make sure we do not get too much speculation? that is a big problem with journalists. we like to speculate on things.

we are going to speculate, but we -- what do we do that? >> we have absolutely no results and we may not have any results for several days. the longer this takes, the more dangerous. some parties may say that they are corrupted or the results have been corrupted. mali has to release the results as soon as possible, even if they are only partial results. as long as this void of silence continues, we will have speculation that will get out of hand. bucks what about the role of france? -- >> what about the role of france? x france said these elections had to be held by the end of july. a lot of people were against holding the elections, saying that now he -- mali was not

ready for them. we ought to be a little positive. this has been an extraordinary accomplishment when you think about it. you have more than 65% voting. many people could've gotten up in the morning and said, i might be killed by some terrorists as i i'm waiting to vote. the voting was much lower in areas like the northeast, but that is normal. you have a huge election turnaround. even in american terms. you have no terrorist activity. you need to emphasize those points without getting carried away. we will probably have another round and we have to see what will happen between now and august 11. by all measure, this has been an

extra ordinary accomplishment on the part of the government. >> in democracies where there is peaceful, able get very complacent about their own democracy. -- people get very complacent about their own democracy. >> a have to be accepted by the main candidates. otherwise, the countries can call for support from the street. i do not think that is a scenario that we will see, but i would like to hear your views. that is the key, that the results are accepted. the candidate sign an official document saying they would accept the results. >> yesterday, even if i did not

have the chance to have the card to do my vote and everything went good. at the end of the day, every polling station -- we were all there. we already know how people came to vote and what are the results. we are just waiting for the consolidation of these results. there is no way to do any correction. >> we have a tweet coming in. you get the endorsement of one of our viewers. i am sure many others watching.

you are from the center of all of the reporting in all of the action and not committee -- community and activity. you still have friends and family there. it must be a difficult time for you. >> let's not get carried away yet. this is one step and the election process is going to be very long. all we can do right now is hope that the situation is not going to trigger other events and that people who are not satisfied with the results or the candidates do not try to push different groups to commit terrorist acts. i think we have to be very cautious until we have definite

results, and even after, we have to keep our guard up. it seems very -- everything is going well. in a very tense environment, which is not very stable, so at any moment a single event can trigger many behind it. catastrophic results. the most important thing is to be -- we can rejoice that the election has taken place, but the results might not be perfect. they might not be -- the count may not be perfect. if we can keep -- be cautious about the results, i think we are going in a good direction. >> let's bring in our representative from the international tuareg movement.

we are running out of time. is there one candidate who you would feel happy negotiating with with your future? >> not at all. the tuareg have declared their independence in 20 12. what is happening in the south has nothing to do with -- as we have seen by international rights, people have been killed. >> regardless of what happens, you will not accept it? >> sorry? >> regardless of the count, you will not accept it? >> at all. this is what happened during the cease-fire. the pressure has been put on the movement in the north to stop them fighting.

i am amazed people keep saying this is a democraticm country. a mali has always been in the coups. the army gets into power. >> i am sorry to cut you off. thank you very much for your tuareg take on this election. >> one of the main challenges the government will face is to rebuild the military. this is being done without the european union, which was charged with that by the security council. they are bringing tuareg and

other ethnic groups. >> will that work out? >> they are part and they have to be integrated into the army. >> at the high level, you have many -- >> there are many things we could discuss, but time is against us. that is the "france 24" debate. stay with us.

hello there. welcome to "newsline." it's tuesday, july 30th. i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. supporters of egypt's old ruler show little in the fight with the country's new leaders. followers of mohamed morsi say they intend to defy government orders to abandon their protests. europe's top diplomat has flown in on a mission to pull the two