Former Madagascar Leaders Return As Candidates In July Polls

Ahead of Madagascar’s upcoming presidential elections due to take place in July, over 41 individuals have indicated interest in running as presidential candidates including former president Didier Ratsiraka and Lalao Ravalomanana, the wife of the ousted leader, Marc Ravalomanana, and the current President Andry Rajoelina.

The inclusion of the three candidates on a list published by a special electoral court late last month, confirming them as candidates in the July 24 election has sprung up surprise, especially due to the fact that Rajoelina and Ravolamanana’s wife were previously not allowed to stand.

Former Mozambican president, Joachim Chissano, who mediated in the crisis in 2009, said that he was uneasy about the changes to include Rajoelina and Mrs Ravalomanana, but added that he had seen nothing to suggest that anyone wanted to set the political process back.

Rajoelina, who seized power in a coup in 2009, had said in January he would not put his name forward, bowing to pressure from regional powers to stand aside to prevent unrest in this year’s vote.

But his camp said that deal was broken when the wife of Ravalomanana, who had said he would not contest the vote, said she would stand instead.

Rajoelina’s volte-face has raised tensions on the island, whose resources include gold, chrome, uranium, cobalt, nickel and limenite, a titanium ore.

But on the streets of the capital Antananarivo, opinions about the candidates list are mixed.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) brokered a deal in September 2011 that confirmed Rajoelina as president and allowed for the unconditional return of Ravalomanana.

The toppled leader remains in self-imposed exile in South Africa, having been blocked by the government from returning on at least two occasions.

He was sentenced in absentia to life in prison after he was accused of ordering elite troops to kill Rajoelina’s supporters in the run-up to his overthrow.

Mrs Ravalomanana returned in March from South Africa where she and her husband had fled after he was forced from power.

According to analyst Pierre Holder, although Rajoelina, a former disc jockey who said his political opponents had nothing to fear, had no choice but to also present himself as a presidential candidate, and represent his supporters.

Holder adds that Madagascar’s High Constitutional Court had to make some amendments in order to allow both Rajoelina and Mrs Ravalomanana to stand for elections, citing fears of unrest.

Madagascar has major reserves of oil and minerals but the past four years of political uncertainty have damaged growth and deterred investors.