He faces 24 candidates of which only one, Soumaila Cisse, 68, is seen as having a strong chance of ousting him. Both men are from the Saharan nations political elite, and IBK beat Cisse in a run-off at the 2013 poll.
Both held final rallies attracting thousands of people on Friday night.
There is still a lot to do. Thats why I am soliciting the Malian people to give us another term, not because Im thirsty for power, Keita said at a rally on a leafy square on the banks of the Niger river.
Everywhere Ive been I see a desire for change. Malians want nothing more to do with this regime, Cisse told his supporters at his party headquarters.
All candidates have promised to reverse Malis decline and help end pervasive poverty. Mali is 14th from the bottom on the U.N. Human Development Index, despite being Africas third biggest gold exporter and a major cotton grower.
A billboard in the exhaust fume-choked capital Bamako depicts Keita in flowing white robes and a skull cap, urging Malians to consolidate the peace.
Yet since he has been in power, violence has worsened. Civil society website Malilink recorded 932 attacks in the first half of 2018, almost double that for all of 2017 and triple 2015.
In the north, where French troops stepped in to halt a Tuareg rebellion and jihadi takeover before the last poll, jihadists have killed more than 160 U.N. peacekeepers.
Timbuktu, once a Sahara desert tourist spot, is unstable, hit by Islamist militants as well as tensions between Arab and Tuareg traders and black Malians from the south.
Islamist violence has also spread to central Mali, where militants have attacked the pan-regional G5 Sahel force. Killings have begun to take on an ethnic tone, as the Islamists exploit tensions over access to land and water.
Human Rights groups have unearthed evidence that Malian troops were implicated in mass graves in central Mali. The Defence Ministry pledged to investigate.
Keita has played down the countrys security woes.
There are pockets of violence, residues of terrorism that even (French forces) havent managed to vanquish from Malian soil, he said after a tour of Malis diaspora, one of about 150 costly foreign trips that have been criticised by opponents since he took office.
Are you going to blame all that on IBK?
Whoever is to blame, the violence could deter many from voting in a nation with consistently the lowest turnout in West Africa about 40 percent on average.
Violence in the Mopti region and northern region is really going to depress turnout, said U.S. researcher Bruce Whitehouse.
Discontent with IBK is palpable, and thousands protested against him in Bamako last month. Yet he has the benefit of incumbency and is likely to win, although probably only in a second round, diplomats say.
Though most expect a smooth election, there is a risk of a disputed poll turning violent. Opposition candidates are crying foul over alleged tampering with the electoral list.
Im sad to see a government that cheats, to see an electoral fraud in the offing, Cisse told Reuters after his rally. But we dont have a plan-B. We must go the polls.
If Mali can avoid a rancorous dispute over the result, that will sooth anxieties.
Thats the metric the international community will use: there you go, we had a peaceful election, Adam Thiam, a Malian analyst told Reuters in Bamako.
This election is all about showing Mali is stabilising.
Source: NAN