Antananarivo | Sunday
MADAGASCAR’S outgoing President Didier Ratsiraka on Sunday demanded that a referendum be held to determine the outcome of a violent dispute over the presidency of the Indian Ocean island state.
Such a referendum, Ratsiraka told reporters, was envisaged in a reconciliation deal he had signed in Dakar on April 18 with his rival for the presidency, maverick politician Marc Ravalomanana.
”For me, if we want national reconciliation, the people must make their choice by means of a referendum,” he said.
Ratsiraka said earlier on Sunday he would not recognise a high court ruling due Monday on the outcome of December’s contested presidential poll.
Ratsiraka, who returned to Madagascar earlier in the day after more than a week away in France, told reporters he considered the High Constitutional Court (HCC) to be ”illegal”.
Ravalomanana, the mayor of the capital Antananarivo, unilaterally declared himself head of state in February, saying initial results that called for a second-round runoff with Ratsiraka had been rigged against him.
In the event of no clear winner being announced by the HCC’s fresh results, the Dakar deal called for a transitional government to be set up so as to organise a referendum to decide who will be Madagascar’s next president.
There is a widespread conviction in Antananarivo that Ratsiraka and Ravalomanana secretly agreed in Dakar to take this path and some observers believe that Ravalomanana’s camp is now reneging on this secret deal and pushing the HCC to declare their man president.
In such a tense climate, many in Madagascar now expect serious violence to break out.
Ratsiraka’s government decamped to the eastern port city of Toamasina and set up barricades on roads leading to the capital, starving it of fuel and other vital supplies.
”Ratsiraka is certainly a little troubled by the belligerent declarations of the provincial governors, in particular the threats to declare the provinces independent,” opined one of Ratsiraka’s close advisers.
But these threats ”had the good effect of calming things down in Ravalomanana’s camp, which must be pondering the risks of declaring him president on Monday”.
Since Friday, pro-Ravalomanana media have increased calls for vigilance, hinting that Ratsiraka’s camp was plotting to further destabilise the country.br> One of Ratsiraka’s close associates made it clear on Saturday that the HCC’s decision would not be recognised.
”If Marc Ravalomanana is declared president on Monday, we will go back to a situation of conflict,” he predicted. – Sapa-AFP