Runoff in Madagascar: Showdown in the eternal battle

0
458

In the runoff election for the presidency of the Malagasy people on Wednesday not a new face to choose from. Both candidates have ruled Madagascar ever – and are connected as a counterparty intimately.

The candidates in the ballot: Marc Ravalomanana (left) and Andry Rajoelina (right)

You want to again. Andry Rajoelina and Marc Ravalomanana, and two former presidents of Madagascar, have stepped up to lead their country once again. The run-off election on Wednesday could be the big Finale: The two opponents, their battle will determine the policy of the country for more than a decade – for the first Time, they are available in a choice directly after you have dropped in the first round of the 34 other candidates far behind. There are two candidates that have one or the other of the invoice with each other openly, though they differ in their profile, not so much.

To lead their unanimous promise: Madagascar out of poverty. Both were started as Self-Made Men, says Marcus Schneider, head of office, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Madagascar. “Both have been successful entrepreneurs, then politicians, and now their own will sell,” Schneider says in a DW Interview. “They say: Look what I managed, how I’m rich. When I’m President, I will leave the country the same.”

From the innovator to the coup leaders

The current power structure goes back to the year 2007, when Andry Rajoelina was elected after a spectacular election campaign for mayor of the capital Antananarivo. He was the face of a movement that rebelled against the power-hungry excesses of the just re-elected President Marc Ravalomanana. It describes Marcus Schneider. “The political conflict is not due to the rivalries of the two personalities, but the fact that Marc Ravalomanana in his last years of rule of megalomaniac impulses. He urged many other politicians and businessmen on the edge.”

With a poverty rate of 76.2 percent, Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in the world

Rajoelina, the dynamic city slickers, back in the early thirties, the DJ, and young entrepreneurs, stand for renewal. Ravalomanana responded with repression. At the beginning of 2009, he had Rajoelinas TV channels close after playing an Interview with an Ex-President. The conflict came to a head. Twice Rajoelina tried to take the Power itself. The second Time he had the military behind the coup was perfect. “There is no people’s revolution was against Ravalomanana, but rather a revolt of the political and economic elites, who wanted to get rid of a President who focused the political and economic life of Monopoli,” explains Schneider.

Rajoelinas to power, the country plunged into a political crisis. International sanctions Rajoelinas transitional government is put under pressure, only after numerous Mediation attempts, they managed in 2013 to overcome with the new elections the crisis. The two opponents did not at that time himself, but sent deputies into the race. Hery Rajaonarimampianina, decided the race for Rajoelinas camp. But the Deputy soon went his own way and stood in 2018, also for the election, but lost in the first round.

Interests instead of ideology

Rajoelina and Ravalomanana represent different economic interests in a System in which political and economic elites strongly interwoven. “Who is the President, can do much to distribute. He can ask his friends, his party supporters also economically satisfied”, says Marcus Schneider of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. This was a strong Motivation right there, where the ideological trenches – how between the two current competitors – are not very large.

Counting in Madagascar vote after the first ballot on may 7. November

Also, the Connections in the global North, could play a role. Ravalomanana is considered to be a friend of the United States, Rajoelina maintains close contacts to France, where he spent the last years. He had changed in this time, he promises his constituents. Who wins of the two, is likely to have an impact, therefore, on the future relations of the country.

Get out of the crisis

Both promise to fight after the elections, the poverty, and to create perspectives for the population. In your previous terms, you have not succeeded, even if it gave Ravalomanana a few years of the economic recovery. The slight increase in gross domestic product is currently being made by the growing population of betting. But first of all, it is important to have clarity and Consensus about the new President. Here, experts have their doubts and expect that the Loser will challenge the results. After the first round of Rajoelina – despite its relatively good performance – with the election Commission CENI dissatisfied and doubted the result.

“It is clear that in this second round, more is at stake when it comes to transparency, the performance and professionalism of the CENI,” says the madgassische lawyer Sahondra Rabenarivo in the DW-interview. The tallying and announcement of the results will not get in the Christmas season, perhaps the necessary attention – which would be necessary in order to guarantee a return to the agenda. “What we need is the wisdom and the spirit of Christmas.”

Employees: Priscat Rakotomalala