More than eight million Malians will go to the polls on Sunday in a key electoral test for the fragile Sahel state, battling a wave of ethnic violence and jihadism.
President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, 71, leads a crowded field of 24 candidates -- just one of them a woman -- bidding for the five-year presidency.
His record on security has been a dominant theme, with opponents, including several former ministers, accusing him of incompetence.
"He was elected with 77.6 percent of the vote, but he's been unable to resolve the country's main problems -- the restoration of peace and the issue of insecurity," said Abdoulaye Cisse, a supporter of candidate Modibo Sidibe, a former prime minister.
On the campaign trail, Keita -- commonly known by his initials of IBK -- has highlighted the achievement of a 2015 peace agreement between the government, government-allied groups and former Tuareg rebels to fight jihadism in the country's north.
Winding up his campaign Friday, having earlier accused jihadists of injecting "poison" by stirring up ethnic tensions, Keita told some 2,000 chanting supporters at his final rally that "my only crime is the love you bear me".
One supporter attending, Cheickna Traore, a young entrepreneur, insisted as Keita spoke of the "unbreakable bond" between him and his camp that there was no real alternative.
"Nobody can sort Mali out in five years. Nobody. If IBK goes then the next president will have to start again from square one. We don't want that, we want continuity."