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Madagascar |
ELECTIONS
Six candidates are lined up for the 16 December presidential election.
In
order to avoid all cheating, the Malagasy people will be entitled to two
sets of results:
one official and the other provided by civil society’s
election monitors
The first round of Madagascar’s presidential election will be held on 16 December. Nearly 6 million citizens are invited to vote. All candidates had to register by 27 October, and having studied their files, the Constitutional High Court accepted 6 out of the 7 candidates.
In fact there were far more «interested parties». Fifteen candidates were entitled to stand for election at the time of the previous presidential election, but, in order to limit and dissuade applicants, the government amended the Electoral Law. Candidates in the forthcoming election had to provide a deposit of 125 million Malagasy francs (125,000 FF), as against 25,000 FF at the time of the last election. Everyone condemned this «selection by money», considering the extreme poverty of the country. By way of comparison, the interested parties pointed out that even in France the election deposit is only about 9,000 FF. But the government stuck to its guns, which obliged many candidates to withdraw their applications.
Madagascar’s current President, Didier Ratsiraka, is seeking re-election for the fifth time. Former President Albert Zafy is striving to become president for the third time, and Didier Ratsiraka’s old ally, Herizo Razafimahaleo, for the second time. Three other candidates are newcomers to the presidential election scene: Businessman Marc Ravalomanana, presently mayor of Madagascar’s capital city, Antananarivo; Pasteur Daniel Rajakoba who is a member of the Malagasy diaspora in France; and another businessman, Patrick Rajaonary.
Various surveys, at least in the larger cities, foresee that the present President of the Republic and Antananarivo’s mayor will achieve victory in the first round. But it should not be forgotten that it’s people living in the rural areas (composing three- quarters of the population) who will be a deciding factor. Both President and Mayor have been competing in what amounts to pre-election illegality. Even before the «go» signal was given, they’d hit the campaign trail. The National Electoral Council (CNE) turned a blind eye, because who will dare to criticise a sitting President on this issue?
The President of the Republic has been inaugurating all and anything, as fast as he can. Meanwhile, Antananarivo’s mayor has been touring the Churches. He’s not got a political base because he doesn’t belong to any political party, so he’s been using church structures. The World Council of Christian Churches (FFKM) which englobes the main Christian Churches, has in public, remained neutral, but in reality it supports Marc Ravalomanana, who is not just mayor of Antananarivo, he’s also vice-president of the Protestant Church in Madagascar, and the owner of Madagascar’s largest agro-alimentary industry.
At the moment, it’s clear that everyone wants change and wants to see the back of Mr Ratsiraka, whose been in office since 1976 (with a short five-year break from 1991 to 1996). During his time in office, the country has been getting increasingly poorer and is classified today among the Least Advanced Countries. Most of his electorate is made up of the poorest and the illiterate — unfortunately a majority, especially in the rural areas.
The main opposition parties are without candidates because they don’t have enough money, so they’ve lined up behind the candidate-mayor, Marc Ravalomanana. «Everything’s turning upside down», cry some political party leaders.
For an impartial election
In Madagascar, election campaigning is synonymous with handouts, be they gifts in kind or cash. Every candidate has these bad habits. And at election periods, there’s always been suspicions of electoral cheating dominating the entire election exercise.
In order to ensure as impartial and honest an election as possible, a number of civil society groups have joined forces in an Election Monitoring Association, independent of the elections. This association consists of the Catholic Church’s Faith and Justice Commission, the National Committee for Monitoring the Elections (CNOE), and Andrimaso-FFKM (an organization within the World Council of Christian Churches, for monitoring the elections). Madeleine Ramaholimiaso is CNOE‘s president. She says that since it’s foundation in 1989, CNOE has been able to make its presence felt. Between 1989 and 1996, a notable improvement was observed in the conduct of elections. «But», says CNOE, «after 1996, i.e. as soon as President Ratsiraka Didier returned to Office, there was a downwards trend. So we’ve got to keep a strict eye on what’s happening».
Each member of the Association has undertaken a citizen’s awareness campaign, so that every citizen is aware of his/her rights and duties vis à vis the elections. Unfortunately, because our country is so vast, it’s proved impossible to cover the whole island. Therefore, the Monitoring Association’s main aim is to place election monitors in all the 16,000 polling stations scattered throughout the country. Personnel from the Catholic dioceses of Madagascar will be asked to take part in this monitoring exercise. Once the actual voting is over, the monitors will draw up a report on how the voting and counting went, and present their reports and their estimation of election results as quickly as possible to the Constitutional High Court. Thus, there will be two election results — one from the government, the other from the monitors.
The Association’s activities are financed by the private sector and various foreign donors — e.g. all the Western countries represented in Madagascar — France, Germany, the United States, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Japan, and the European Union. These donor nations and organisations have made it clear they won’t tolerate any cheating in the elections, and if that does occur, any grants intended for Madagascar will be suspended. No small threat because Madagascar depends mainly on funds from elsewhere to keep the country afloat.
The government is none too happy with what it terms, «meddling by the Churches and civil society in the elections». The present leaders point out (diplomatically), that the Churches should confine themselves to their «spiritual role» and not interfere in politics. However, although dissatisfied, Didier Ratsiraka and the other candidates are taking care not to have a head-on collision with the Council of Churches on this issue, knowing that Madagascar’s citizens, many of them sincere Christians, have a great respect for the Churches’ moral authority. Don’t forget that the FFKM caused Didier Ratsiraka’s downfall in 1991.
Everyone, apart from the present government, appreciates the need for the presence of independent monitors at the polling stations. The more so, as everyone is fully aware that directly or indirectly, this government is a past master at cheating when it comes to elections.
The CNOE notes that in addition to election monitors, the Association will also organise in-depth awareness campaigns, so that by 16 December, everyone is aware of their rights as a voter. People still recall that on 3 December 2000, when there was an electoral consultation regarding decentralisation, the abstention rate was a record 70% nationwide, and 80% in the capital. The Electoral Monitoring Association thinks this massive abstention from the polls is clear proof of the awareness campaign’s importance.
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