On the 19th of December, voters in Madagascar cast their ballots across the Indian Ocean island nation in a bid to select a new president in a run off election that pits two former presidents against each other.
The two candidates, Marc Ravalomanana, 69, president from 2002 to 2009, and Andry Rajoelina, 44, president from 2009 to 2014, have a longstanding political rivalry. France 24 reports that “in January 2009, when Ravalomanana was president, the mayor of the capital Antananarivo, Rajoelina, denounced attacks on civil liberties and made himself the figurehead of a protest movement. Over the course of the following month, the presidential guard suppressed a series of demonstrations by Rajoelina’s supporters, killing around 100 people. After the army abandoned its support for him, Ravalomanana resigned on March 17 and went into exile in South Africa. That same day, the army bestowed “full powers” on Rajoelina.”
Ravalomanana and Rajoelina were both banned from running in the 2013 elections as part of an agreement to end recurring crises that have rocked Madagascar since its independence from France in 1960. France 24’s Madagascar correspondent, Gaëlle Borgia, noted that: “This second-round run-off is really a rematch…It didn’t happen in the 2013 presidential elections because neither could put forward their candidacy. But this election gives the two of them the chance to go face off against each other at the ballot box for the first time.”
In this year’s election, Andry Rajoelina received 39% of the vote in the first round in November, while Marc Ravalomanana, got 35%. Ten million voters are registered in Madagascar, a former French colony which is ranked by the World Bank as one of the world’s poorest nations, although rich in ecological diversity. Unfortunately, yesterday’s run-off had a very low voter turnout.
Many analysts and observers described the election to have been generally peaceful and results are expected within a week as counting of the votes are already underway.
More than two-thirds of the island’s population of 25 million live in extreme poverty, while corruption is reportedly widespread.
