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Madagascar: Presidential election deemed fair by observers
Election observers have certified Madagascar’s run-off presidential election as free and credible on Sunday, urging the candidates to stay calm as counting continued after the vote.
By late Sunday, Hery Rajaonarimampianina, was leading with 15 percent of votes counted, though both sides accused the other of fraud and his rival, Robinson Jean Louis, demanded a publication of the results be suspended.
However, election observers, both local and international, said they could fault little so far.
“According to the parameters and methodology of the European Union, the election was free, credible and democratic,” said EU mission chief Maria Muniz de Urquiza of Friday’s vote to restore democracy to the island-nation.
She cautioned though that “the process has not finished. We have to wait for counting to end and the reporting of the results,” after both candidates claimed victory.
The parliamentary and run-off presidential polls were aimed at ending economic and political stagnation on the island-nation after current leader Andry Rajoelina seized power from Marc Ravalomanana in an army-backed coup in 2009.
Both Rajoelina and Ravalomanana were barred from running for the presidency as the international community fears a return to violence, but proxy candidates ran instead.
Other commentators also judged the election free and urged the candidates to accept the outcome. Observers from the US-based Carter Center and the Johannesburg-based Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA) found “that voting and counting processes were peaceful, orderly,” they said in a statement.
The elections’ organization was “relatively successful” despite several constraints, said EISA mission head Cassam Uteem, a former president of Mauritius. “All the members of our team have confirmed that everything happened transparently, and we don’t have any reason to believe that there has been rigging,” he said.
Turnout was low – less than half of the 7.9 million eligible voters, cast their ballots according to sources.
Mutual mud-slinging marked the long wait for the result. “We are calling for the result publication to be halted and want to check all the ballot boxes to see if there are any pre-marked ballot papers,” Jean Louis, 61, protege of ousted president Ravalomanana, told reporters.
Louis, claimed victory after his teams collected “80 percent of results all over Madagascar” that he said showed he won 65 percent of the vote. On Saturday he had claimed 56 percent.
His rival, former finance minister Rajaonarimampianina, claimed a similar result in his favor. The election commission, police and observers have so far confirmed no fraud allegations.
One observer experienced in elections in high-risk areas said of Louis’ claims of ballot fixing: “It’s a classic case that candidates who don’t get the score they hoped for claim fraud.”
Rajaonarimampianina, 55, a former finance minister under Rajoelina, led with 53.63 percent of votes against Jean Louis’s 46.37 precent, with 3,047 polling stations out of 20,001 reporting by the evening.
Friday’s presidential run-off after an inconclusive first round on October 25 coincided with a vote for 151 parliamentarians.
Source: AFP