RUNDU – A runoff in the presidential election in Madagascar will be held in the sea-locked country next month, after the 33 contesting candidates failed to garner more than 50 percent of the votes.
As per the electoral code of Madagascar, the two leading candidates must enter a run-off election if none of the 33 candidates gains 50 percent of the votes in the first round. The Independent National Electoral Commission said last Friday that the two top candidates, Jean Louis Robinson and Hery Rajaonarimampianina, will square off during the runoff. Announcing the runoff in an official statement last Friday, the Namibian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, who is the Head of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Observer Mission to the elections in Madagascar, confirmed December 20 as the date for the watershed elections, which many hope will end the political instability which was brought upon by a coup in 2009. Although peace prevailed and the polls were declared free and fair by SADC and international observers during the initial round of voting, Nandi-Ndaitwah urged the political leadership and the Malagasy people to maintain the same peaceful environment in the second round. “This is very crucial for the stability of the country and the credibility of the elections,” said Nandi-Ndaitwah. She further said “since more than 60 percent of eligible voters exercised their right to vote, in any democracy this is an admirable voter-turnout.” SADC further paid tribute to the Malagasy people for exercising their democratic right to vote, which according to the regional bloc, shows their desire to bring about an end to the political and economic crisis in the country and to return it to constitutional normalcy.
With a population of about 22 million, 7.8 million were registered to vote, of which 4.8 million of the registered voters cast their votes towards the end of last month. In 2010 a constitutional referendum was held in Madagascar, which resulted in the creation of a new constitution that barred candidates who had not lived in Madagascar for the previous six months, from taking part in the elections.
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % |
| Jean-Louis Robinson | AVANA | 955,534 | 21.10 |
| Hery Rajaonarimampianina | Hery Vaovao ho an’i Madagasikara R | 721,206 | 15.93 |
| Hajo Herivelona Andrianainarivelo | Malagasy Miara Miainga | 476,153 | 10.51 |
| Roland Ratsiraka | MTS | 407,732 | 9.00 |
| Albert Camille Vital | Hiaraka Isika | 310,253 | 6.85 |
| Total votes of the other 28 parties | 1,657,511 | ||
| Invalid/blank votes | 303,277 | ||
| Total | 4,831,666 | 100 | |
| Registered voters/turnout | 7,823,305 | 61.76 | |
| Source: CENIT | |||
By Mathias Haufiku