Dakar, Antananarivo | Wednesday
MADAGASCAR’S rival leaders, Didier Ratsiraka and Marc Ravalomanana, had separate meetings early on Wednesday in the Senegal capital with four African presidents attempting to mediate in their long-standing election dispute.
Ratsiraka and Ravalomanana both claim to be the legitimate leader of the Indian Ocean island state following an inconclusive presidential election in December.
They met Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade, Laurent Gbagbo of Ivory Coast, Mathieu Kerekou of Benin and Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique as well as Organisation of African Unity Secretary General Amara Essy.
Incumbent president Ratsiraka met first with the African leaders for 90 minutes in a big hotel on the outskirts of Dakar, declaring afterwards that he was too tired to make a press statement.
Antananarivo Mayor Ravalomanana, who proclaimed himself president after the December 16 vote, was then received by the heads of state and said afterwards: “It’s not yet finished, but it’s on the right road.”
Asked whether any agreement had been reached, he replied: “No, not yet.”
Earlier, Wade had said the rival Malagasy leaders might agree to meet here. “Neither of the two has ruled it out in principle,” he said.
Ratsiraka and Ravalomanana were invited here by Wade for discussions on the sidelines of a conference on the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), which wound up on Tuesday.
The four heads of state, who were here for the conference, made no comment after their meetings. Meanwhile, an army general loyal to Ratsiraka was shot dead by three men in a provincial hospital on Tuesday, after being injured in a new round of unrest.
General Raymond Randrianaivo was killed at the hospital in the central city of Fianarantsoa, to which he had been taken after being injured.
The killing came only hours after the deaths of two women who were shot by troops under his command during the unrest in the troubled city. – AFP