Madagascar’s president declared election winner



ANTANANARIVO: Madagascar’s incumbent President Marc Ravalomanana was officially declared yesterday the winner of December 3 elections, securing a second five-year term.
“Candidate Ravalomanana, Marc is elected president of the republic having won more than 50% of the votes,” said Jean Michel Rajaonarivony, the head of the Constitutional Court.
The court ratified the results in which Ravalomanana won 54.79% of the votes cast, beating 13 opponents in the first round of the race to the Indian Ocean island’s top seat.

The former parliament speaker Jean Lahiniriko came second with 11.65%, followed by Roland Ratsiraka, nephew of ex-president Didier Ratsiraka, whom Ravalomanana beat in the last election five years ago, with 10.14%.
Ravalomanana can thus serve a second five-year term. He will also be eligible to run for a third term under the island’s constitution.
“I am very happy. This confirms our confidence with Madagascans and the international community,” Ravalomanana told AFP.

“We will continue on our path. I am optimistic about the future of Madagascar,” said the 57-year-old one-time milk vendor who first came to power after the chaotic 2001 elections.

“This is a good result for the president and democracy in Madagascar,” said Solofo Razoarimihaja, president of Ravalomanana’s TIM (I love Madagascar) party and the deputy speaker of parliament.

“Just as we said during the campaigns, we will continue with the efforts in the coming years,” Razoarimihaja added.

Ravalomana is expected to be sworn in within the first two weeks of January.
His rivals had lodged complaints with the court claiming voting irregularities. But election observers said the polls were fair.
The court rejected the challenges as either lacking basis or inadmissible and ruled that there were no irregularities regarding election returns of the opposition candidates.

Apart from isolated incidents, Madagascar’s polls ran smoothly unlike the 2001 contest that plunged the world’s fourth-largest island into political chaos and brought it to the brink of civil war.
Ravalomana has outlined an economic recovery roadmap dubbed “Madagascar Action Plan” that seeks to reduce poverty to 50% and shore growth by between eight to 10% annually by 2012.

Nearly 70% of Madagascar’s 17mn people live in abject poverty, with the country ranked among world’s 30 most impoverished nations in terms of human development.
The country’s last presidential elections ended in violence and chaos when Ratsiraka refused to concede defeat to Ravalomanana.

The impasse split the island in two – with two capitals, two governments, and a divided army – until Ravalomanana was officially proclaimed president in May 2002. – AFP

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