Andry Rajoelina was re-elected president in the first round in a vote boycotted by ten opposition candidates

The outgoing president received 58.95% of the votes cast, in a vote marked by strong abstention. Ten opposition candidates, including two former presidents, called on voters to “consider that these elections do not exist.”

An expected victory. Andry Rajoelina was re-elected president of Madagascar at the end of the first round of a vote that ten opposition candidates had called to boycott and whose outcome they do not recognize, according to the results presented on Saturday November 25 by the electoral commission. The 49-year-old outgoing candidate, who was running for a second term at the head of the large island in the Indian Ocean, won 58.95% of the votes cast, according to the results announced at a press conference in Antananarivo , the capital.

The results must still be validated by the High Constitutional Court, the highest court in the country. “The Malagasy people have chosen the path of continuity, serenity and stability”, welcomed Andry Rajoelina to the press shortly after. Thanking voters for their “wisdom”he assured that they “expressed freely”. Elected since 2018, Andry Rajoelina first came to power in 2009 thanks to a mutiny driving out former president Marc Ravalomanana.

Eleven million Malagasy people registered on the electoral lists were called to the polls on November 16. They had to choose between Andry Rajoelina and twelve other official candidates. But ten opposition candidates gathered in a collective, including two former presidents, had called on voters to “consider that these elections do not exist”. They refused to campaign. Consequence: the participation rate in the vote was barely above 46%, down compared to the previous presidential election in 2018.

An appeal to cancel the vote

“What results? What election?”, responded to AFP a representative of the collective of opponents to a request for comment on Rajoelina’s victory. The group had already announced on Friday that its members would not recognize the results. “We will not recognize the results of this illegitimate election, riddled with irregularities, and we decline all responsibility for the political and social instability that could result from it”they warned.

An opposition candidate appealed to the High Constitutional Court, the highest court in the country, to demand the annulment of the vote. “I filed two requests to request the annulment of the vote and the disqualification of Andry Rajoelina”, declared Siteny Randrianasoloniaiko, denouncing electoral fraud. The opposition has not yet called for people to take to the streets again. Almost daily and for weeks before the presidential election, the collective called for demonstrations in Antananarivo. The protests, which were not massively followed, were regularly dispersed with tear gas.

The political crisis in the country was triggered in June by the revelation of the French naturalization, in complete discretion, of Andry Rajoelina in 2014. According to the opposition, this was to prevent him from running, but the courts refused to invalidate his candidacy. The collective of opposition candidates accused the government of maneuvering to reappoint Andry Rajoelina and denounced “an institutional coup d’état”. They called for a suspension of the electoral process and the intervention of the international community.