Madagascar awaits confirmation of the results of the first round of the presidential elections after an election day marked by high abstention and the boycott of a large part of the opposition candidates. Turnout in the November 16 elections, which were preceded by a tense campaign and weeks of violent protests against the outgoing president, Andry Rajoelina, is “the lowest in the entire history of Madagascar,” the opposition said. The organization Transparency International has asked not to legitimize the results, considering that the process has been “opaque.”
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More than eleven million registered voters in Madagascar, an island nation in the Indian Ocean located off Mozambique, were called to the polls to choose the head of state between thirteen opposition candidates and the now former ruler Andry Rajoelina, who resigned from the Presidency in September past to be eligible for a third term.
Polling stations closed at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday (2:00 p.m. GMT) and provisional results were expected in the late afternoon. But, around 7 a.m. on Friday (04:00 GMT), the electoral body had not yet released official figures.
“A handful of people tried to prevent citizens from expressing their choice. They have the right not to participate, but populations have the right and duty to vote,” Rajoelina said after voting in a neighborhood in the north of Antananarivo, the country’s capital. .
These elections are the third since the 2009 coup d’état, in which Rajoelina overthrew the then president, Marc Ravalomanana. In 2013, Rajoelina handed over power, but in 2019 he won the elections by defeating Ravalomanana.
The opposition has assured that Rajoelina cannot be a candidate because he has dual nationality: Franco-Malagasy.
Extreme tension
The elections have been surrounded by tension since September, when Rajoelina resigned to comply with the constitutional norm and be able to seek re-election. The president of the Senate, Herimanana Razafimahefa, who was to assume the position of head of state, rejected it for “personal reasons”, although in October he said he had received threats against him and his family for making that decision.
Instead of Razafimahefa, Rajoelina’s Prime Minister, Christian Ntsay, assumed the Presidency, which generated rejection from the opposition, considering that this would facilitate electoral fraud.
The opposition promoted marches for more than six weeks before the vote, pushing for its postponement and demanded that a new board of the electoral commission be appointed, but Rajoelina dismissed the calls, calling them a political tactic.
Protests and opposition boycott
His electoral rivals say that Rajoelina should be disqualified from running for President because he obtained French nationality in 2014. But, the now former president assures that the Constitution does not require that the head of state have exclusively Malagasy nationality.
In response to Rajoelina’s nomination, 10 of the 13 opposition presidential candidates in Madagascar urged the population to boycott this Thursday’s elections, after a very tense electoral campaign marked by the repression of protests against Rajoelina.
“We confirm that the fight continues and that we will not stop until we achieve victory,” said the opposition. Thursday in a statement.
Local authorities have reported, providing preliminary data, that voter turnout was approximately 30% in areas supporting the ruling party and 15 to 20% in opposition strongholds.
“I’m not going to vote because it’s an election that doesn’t meet standards, so what’s the point?” Mama Pôta, a vendor in the capital, told Reuters.
In recent weeks, police have used tear gas to break up protests by opposition supporters.
In this regard, the UN warned last October that security forces had used “unnecessary and disproportionate force” against peaceful protesters and called for respect for freedom of expression.
Rajoelina, 49 years old and leader of the Tanora Malagasy Vonona party (TVG, Willing Malagasy Youth), faces thirteen opposition candidates in these elections, among them former presidents Marc Ravalomanana (who lost to Rajoelina in 2018) and Hery Rajaonarimanpianina.
According to the law, there will be a second round on December 20 if no candidate achieves an absolute majority.
With information from Reuters, EFE and local media
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