Folding banana leaves as big as beach towels, Emelie Andrianavisoa from Brickaville explains why she didn’t vote in Madagascar’s presidential election.
“My name is incorrect on my Âvoter’s card and I cannot check whether I am on the voters’ roll,” she says. “They tell me there is a way of doing this, but I have not got the time to do it.
“So I’m preparing these leaves to line the baskets for litchi picking that starts tomorrow. That’s the most important thing for all of us now. I can’t go home tonight and tell my hungry children that there’s nothing on the table because I had to vote.”
The two-week picking season in the Toamasina province is expected to yield 30 000 tons of the soft-shelled fruit.
A fleet of ships lies in port waiting to deliver the fruits to the Christmas tables in Europe.
For many like Andrianavisoa, the litchis, paid for in cash on delivery, Ârepresent their biggest income for the year. She’s glad the violence and tension that followed the election five years ago is over. The bridge over the Rianila River at Brickaville, 90km inland from Toamasina, was the gateway to territory controlled by former president Didier Ratsiraka, who set up an alternative government after disputing Marc Ravolomana’s victory.
“I would have voted for Roland Ratsiraka,” says Andrianavisoa, referring to the former president’s nephew, who is running a distant second to Ravalomanana in the presidential race. “And that would have been a wasted vote.”
Ravalomana, who is set to take at least 60% of the vote in the first round, has two Madagascars to Âgovern.
There are people like Andrianavisoa, who comprise 70% of the population and survive on less than a dollar a day. At the extreme end of the low-income spectrum, there are people who are suffering from famine, humanitarian aid agencies say.
Then there are the Antananarivo yuppies who trawl the two-Âstorey, cutting-edge digital shopping centre that sells the smallest, slimmest MP4 players, the latest cellphones and the most compact lap-top computers available anywhere.
The vastly improved road system credited to Ravalomanana’s presidency allows them to speed along in their huge 4x4s dripping with every conceivable chromed accessory. Outside the capital, the oxcarts and rickshaws negotiate the potholes and the people find the few even paths are along the dykes above the rice paddies.
Ravalomana has his work cut out. Like any president in his final term, the man known as The Milkman — not because of his regular delivery, but because he started his dairy empire hawking yoghurt off the back of his bike — has to think about his legacy.
He’s presumably delighted at the thumbs up international observer teams gave the recent election, although some delegations did suggest that he make important changes to the electoral system.
But, not all the observers presumed to make suggestions. “We’re not going to try to drag Madagascar to reform its electoral system,” John Tendwa, the coordinator of the 24-person delegation from the Southern African Development Community (SADC), told a press conference.
“That might cause Madagascar to leave SADC and we need every member that we can get.”