2023-11-16 19:18:21
Around 60% of Malagasy voters did not go to the polls on Thursday for the first round of the presidential election, which was held in a tense climate and for which participation was a key element, following a call for a boycott from the opposition .
The participation rate in the vote, the preliminary results of which must be announced on November 24, is around 39%, according to an official estimate from the electoral commission (Ceni) whose impartiality is questioned by the opposition.
The collective of ten candidates, opposed to the outgoing president Andry Rajoelina and bringing together two former Malagasy presidents, had announced earlier in the evening a participation “at the lowest in the electoral history of Madagascar”, around 20%, according to figures which were transmitted to them by international observers.
“We do not recognize these elections and neither do the vast majority of the Malagasy population,” Hajo Andrianainarivelo declared to the press at the closing of the polling stations, on behalf of the ten opponents.
Eleven million voters had to choose between Mr. Rajoelina, 49 years old, confident of a victory in the first round, and twelve other official candidates, including those of the collective who did not campaign and have been waging a fierce battle once morest the Past President.
“The only democratic path (…) are the elections,” declared Andry Rajoelina following casting his ballot in Antananarivo.
He was pleased to “see that the population is voting en masse” and denounced “the people who are trying to sow trouble and prevent the elections”.
Opponent Siteny Randrianasoloniaiko, former judo champion, denounced irregularities. In Androy (south), “the offices are literally closed, there are no voters, we had this noted by a bailiff,” he said.
“It is not normal”
In “Tana”, the capital, voters presented themselves in small groups, without hurrying. Coming out of rudimentary voting booths, they leave with their thumbs coated with indelible green-gold ink.
In the stronghold of the opponent and former president Marc Ravalomanana, on the heights, an assessor yawns and stretches: two hours before the vote closed, only 18% of those registered had shown up.
“It’s really not much,” sighs a manager, his hands resting on a largely empty plastic ballot box.
In the office where the outgoing president voted, Eugène Rakatomalala, 43, straw hat and goatee, grumbled: “I’m voting but we know that it’s not normal. There are only a few candidates who campaigned “.
“I am worried because there are some kinds of factions who only want the country to be in disorder (…) We must move forward,” testifies Francky Randriananantoandro, computer science student.
In the “slums”, the broken playground of a modest school also remains almost deserted. Faraniaina Raharinirina, 66, with a long rosary around her neck, wanted to come and vote, “out of duty”.
Elected since 2018, Andry Rajoelina had already gained power for the first time in 2009 thanks to a mutiny driving out former president Ravalomanana.
The group of opposition candidates denounced maneuvers by the government to reappoint Mr. Rajoelina and called for a suspension of the electoral process.
Since the beginning of October, they have increased calls for demonstrations in the capital, each time bringing together only a few hundred supporters.
Andry Rajoelina traveled across the country, among the poorest on the planet, by helicopter or private plane, in the countryside.
The political crisis in the country was triggered in June by the revelation of the French naturalization, in complete discretion, of Andry Rajoelina in 2014. According to the opposition, this was to prevent him from running but the courts refused to invalidate his candidacy.
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