BFF-28 46 candidates bid to contest Madagascar presidency

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MADAGASCAR-POLITICS-VOTE-CANDIDATES

46 candidates bid to contest Madagascar presidency

ANTANANARIVO, Aug 21, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A total of 46 candidates
including the incumbent president and his two predecessors are seeking to
contest Madagascar’s presidential polls at the end of the year, the
Constitutional Court said Tuesday.

The court will now assess the candidates’ eligibility and confirm by
Sunday which ones will be allowed to stand in the first round of the
elections.

The vote scheduled for November 7 comes after an outbreak of protests
that forced President Heri Rajaonarimampianina to accept the formation of a
“consensus” government tasked with organising a fresh poll.

If no candidate receives more than 50 percent in the first round, a
second round of voting will be held on December 19.

Rajaonarimampianina, elected in 2013, will seek re-election as will his
predecessors Andry Rajoelina, who was in power from 2009-2014, and Marc
Ravalomanana, who held office from 2002 to 2009.

Opposition grandees Rajoelina and Ravalomanana were both barred from
running in 2013 under a deal designed to bring stability to the impoverished
Indian Ocean island.

Madagascar is a former French colony with a population of 25 million
that has been beset by political instability for decades.

A standoff erupted over proposed electoral reforms that triggered mass
protests and led the Constitutional Court to order a caretaker government to
organise the ballot.

Demonstrators took to the capital Antananarivo’s central square in April
over Rajaonarimampianina’s efforts to change electoral laws that opponents
said were intended to favour his party.

The proposals were overturned by the courts.

But the protests morphed into a full-blown movement to oust
Rajaonarimampianina. Clashes between activists and the security forces
claimed two lives and left more than a dozen injured.

BSS/AFP/IJ/1128 hrs