BAMAKO: Malians began voting on Sunday in the second round of parliamentary elections intended to cap the nation's return to democracy, but overshadowed by the deaths of two UN peacekeepers in an attack.

Very few voters were present at the opening of polling stations in Bamako, an AFP journalist witnessed, raising fears of a low turnout in polls that mark the troubled west African nation's first steps to recovery after it was upended by a military coup in March last year.