Two days after the first round of the presidential election in Madagascar, several observation missions submitted their preliminary reports. If the report of the mission of the Southern African Development Community (Sadec) does not highlight any major problem, that carried out by the Safidy civil society observatory is overwhelming, underlines the largest electoral observation mission in this 2023 election.
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If the election was held without major incidents, recognizes the observatory, the rate of participation of 43.8% is historically low. This rate which was calculated from some 3,000 polling stations “ could lead to a lack of legitimacy of the elected president and weaken the institutions of the Republic », reports our special correspondent in Antananarivo, Claire Fages.
A ” proliferation of electoral malpractices nationwide “, this is what Safidy’s 5,000 observers, spread across the 23 Malagasy regions, noted, before and during the vote : individuals voting without identity or voter cards, whose indelible ink on their fingers is not checked, unsecured transport of electoral materials, use of public resources and civil servants for the campaign.
Above all, numerous irregularities were noted, committed in particular by the teams of candidate number 3, the outgoing president Andry Rajoelina. Observers also witnessed vote buying by his teams.
“ Safidy observers on the ground particularly noticed the exploitation by the supporters of candidate number 3 of Tosika Fameno, a social protection program dedicated to vulnerable households, by promising them 100,000 ariary [soit 20 euros, NDLR] per month in exchange for joining the TGV party [celui d’Andry Rajoelina, NDLR] and vote for the outgoing presidentexplains Eddie Carina Ranaivojaonina, communications manager at the observatory. Ahead of the vote, there were also money donations of 30,000 ariary [soit 6 euros, NDLR] to encourage these vulnerable households to vote for him “.
The Safidy observatory plans to file legal action once it has verified the tangibility of its evidence.
Lahatra Razakandrainy, political analyst at the Safidy observatory, explains the irregularities observed
The team of outgoing president Andry Rajoelina accuses Safidy of “ tendentious report »
Maître Philippe Disaine Rakotondramboahova, Andry Rajoelina’s representative at the Electoral Commission, reacts on Saturday to the various reports from electoral observation missions published by our correspondent in Antananarivo, Sarah Tétaud.
We are satisfied, in a very very objective way, with Sadec’s mission. We think they did a good job. Not everything is perfect, huh? The participation rate is of course not up to expectations, but we do not yet have the partial provisional results from the Ceni. Regarding the Safidy report, in my opinion, it is not completely independent. He is even tendentious. We know very well that they never held President Rajoelina in their hearts. There is freedom of expression so we will take it into account, but for us, this report is not really a benchmark for democracy. Regarding the alleged vote buying put forward by Safidy, there is no proof. The term “vote buying” is denigration and they will have to provide proof of what they say.
Andry Rajoelina’s camp reacts to Safidy’s report
Read alsoPresidential election in Madagascar: processing of results continues the day after the first round