{"id":21678,"date":"2018-11-08T21:26:33","date_gmt":"2018-11-08T21:26:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=21678"},"modified":"2018-11-08T21:26:33","modified_gmt":"2018-11-08T21:26:33","slug":"former-president-alleges-fraud-in-madagascar-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=21678","title":{"rendered":"Former president alleges fraud in Madagascar election"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Former Madagascar<\/a> president\u00a0Hery Rajaonarimampianina has alleged “many voting irregularities” in this week’s election, raising fears of protests and a disputed result.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Thursday, Rajaonarimampianina said a number of “anomalies” have been detected, including an “invalid electoral register, intimidation [and] the presence of pre-ticked ballots”.<\/span><\/p>\n

“All indications are that the votes of the Madagascan people have been stolen,”\u00a0Rajaonarimampianina, who held\u00a0office from 2014 to September 2018, said.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We will not let the people be robbed of their vote,” he added.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Madagascar election: One-third of voters ‘denied’ right to vote<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

As of the latest count,\u00a0Rajaonarimampianina had won about three percent of the vote\u00a0based on\u00a0results from nearly 300 of Madagascar’s 24,852 polling stations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Election frontrunners and fellow former presidents\u00a0Andry Rajoelina and Marc Ravalomanana, meanwhile, had about 45 percent and 40 percent of support respectively.<\/span><\/p>\n

Provisional results are expected by November 20 which must then be confirmed by the High Constitutional Court by November 28.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

If none of the three-dozen\u00a0<\/span>hopefuls<\/span>\u00a0wins more than 50 percent of the votes, a runoff between the two best performers will be held on December 19.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The new president will serve a five-year term beginning in January 2019.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Election officer, Ernest Razafindraibe, told Reuters news agency that turnout on Wednesday,\u00a0a vote considered to be an acid test of the impoverished island’s democratic credentials,\u00a0<\/span>was about 45 percent.\u00a0Nearly 10 million people were eligible to take part in the ballot.<\/p>\n

Allegations of\u00a0irregularities<\/span>
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Al Jazeera’s Fahmida Miller, reporting from capital Antananarivo, said Rajaonarimampianina had yet to substantiate his allegations regarding possible irregularities.<\/span><\/p>\n

“He is warning people to be vigilant and cautious of the preliminary results and complaining about the late arrival of electoral material and equipment,” Miller said.<\/span><\/p>\n

“[But] they [his team] have not provided any evidence regarding some of his claims, including about ballots already being marked,” she added.<\/span><\/p>\n

The former leader’s claims came after\u00a0a number of the less-fancied candidates expressed concern prior to the election over alleged irregularities in the voters’ roll. They also demanded that the poll be delayed, which was turned down.<\/span><\/p>\n

History of upheaval<\/span><\/h2>\n

The apparent disagreements over the validity of Wednesday’s vote marked the\u00a0latest instance of political upheaval on the Indian Ocean island – the world’s fourth-largest and home to about 25 million people – since it became independent from France in 1960.<\/span><\/p>\n

It has struggled to overcome\u00a0political divisions after a disputed 2001 election that sparked clashes and a 2009 coup.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Madagascar election: Expenses soar amid extreme poverty<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Earlier this year, attempts\u00a0by then president Rajaonarimampianina to change the country’s electoral laws backfired and sparked nearly three months of bitter protests.<\/span><\/p>\n

Political opponents claimed the proposed changes were aimed at barring their candidates from taking part in Wednesday’s poll.<\/span><\/p>\n

Following the demonstrations, in June, the Constitutional Court\u00a0ordered<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0the 60-year-old\u00a0to form a government of national unity with a “consensus prime minister” in order to avert a full-blown crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two months later, on September 7, <\/span>Rajaonarimampianina\u00a0resigned from office to compete in Wednesday’s election.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Madagascar head of state must step down 60 days prior to a presidential poll if he or she wishes to compete in the ballot, according to the country’s constitution<\/strong><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\n SOURCE:
\n Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Madagascar president\u00a0Hery Rajaonarimampianina has alleged “many voting irregularities” in this week’s election, raising fears of protests and a disputed result. In a statement on Thursday, Rajaonarimampianina said a number of “anomalies” have been detected, including an “invalid electoral register, intimidation [and] the presence of pre-ticked ballots”. “All indications are that the votes of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":21679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}