Madagascar’s transition government is ready to hold elections by the end of the year, African Union officials said in Addis Ababa late on Thursday.
The authority set up by army-backed opposition leader Andry Rajoelina, who forced Marc Ravalomanana to relinquish power on March 17, ”has let it be known to us that it is ready to bring forward the transition calendar”, the AU’s special envoy in Madagascar, Ablasse Ouedraogo, told a press conference.
Elections were promised for 2010, but ”they have said they are ready to organise elections before the end of December 2009”. Ouedraogo added: ”It remains to be seen if, in precipitating events, we will discover a durable stability on Madagascar.
”That will [only] be possible if all the protagonists in Madagascar’s political crisis understand the need to make concessions.”
The announcement came at the end of a meeting of a consultative group on Madagascar which began talks earlier on Thursday over the Indian Ocean island’s worsening political crisis.
The talks by the AU-appointed team opened at the bloc’s headquarters in Addis Ababa a day after Madagascar’s months-old crisis took a dive with the arrest of a prime minister appointed by the country’s ousted president.
”The current situation in Madagascar is dangerous. We need to work for the return of social order and lasting stability in Madagascar,” Jean Ping, the AU commission chairperson, said earlier.
”Our task is to support the return of constitutional order as soon as possible,” he added.
Sworn in by the Constitutional Court as Madagascar’s transitional leader, Rajoelina’s power takeover has been condemned internationally as a coup and saw the country suspended from the African Union and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
The AU’s peace and security commissioner, Ramtane Lamamra, said that inclusive dialogue in the run-up to fresh polls would ”pre-suppose the participation of M. Ravalomanana.” Despite initially allowing protests by supporters of the ousted president, forces loyal to Rajoelina have recently clamped down on demonstrators and his regime has banned protests.
On Wednesday, a group of around 20 soldiers, all armed and some hooded, arrested Ravalomanana-appointed premier Manandafy Rakotonirina in a hotel in Antananarivo where he had set up a base to challenge Rajoelina’s regime.
”The situation has never ceased to deteriorate since the unconstitutional change of government,” said Ping.
In addition to the SADC, the consultative group also includes the Common Market for East and Southern Africa, the Indian Ocean Commission, the International Organisation of the Francophonie and the European Union. — Sapa-AFP