BAMAKO: The chief negotiator in a cease-fire deal with rebels paving the way for presidential elections across Mali said on Tuesday he had withdrawn from the race less than two weeks before the watershed vote.

Tiebile Drame, architect of the Ouagadougou Accord enabling Malian troops to secure polls in the Tuareg-held northeastern city of Kidal, said the deeply-divided country was not ready to run a credible election.

“I decided to withdraw my candidature for the July 28 election because the conditions for a fair vote are not in place,” Drame told reporters in Bamako.

He said the election law had been violated because no electoral register was available in Kidal by June 25.

Drame, a former minister and leader of the Party of National Revival (Parena), added that going ahead on July 28 would be “to deny many Malians their right” to vote.

The occupation of Kidal by the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) has been a major obstacle to organizing the election, seen as crucial to Mali’s recovery from the conflict of the past 16 months. Malian military officers staged a coup in March last year after being overpowered by an MNLA rebellion.

The MNLA sided with a French-led military offensive, which reclaimed most of the lost territory from the rebels but the Tuaregs have been reluctant to allow government troops into Kidal for the vote.

The rebels and government agreed as part of a cease-fire deal brokered chiefly by Drame to halt hostilities and on July 5 soldiers entered Kidal while the rebels were confined to camps.

But the presence of the Malian army has stoked tensions in the powder-keg town, with pro- and anti-government protests a regular occurrence and several troops injured by demonstrators.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Monday that even if the presidential election was "imperfect," the results "must be respected."

Mali’s acting president Dioncounda Traore, who is not among the 28 candidates vying to be the next head of state, has also acknowledged that the election would not be perfect, "much less in a country in crisis."