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Ratsiraka sets new poll date
22/03/2002 11:16 - (SA)
Antananarivo - The government of Madagascar's outgoing President Didier Ratsiraka on Thursday set a date for the second round of a
presidential election which has been snubbed by a rival who has
declared himself head of state.
Ratsiraka's cabinet set the ballot for April 28 during a meeting at the Iavoloha presidential palace, a few kilometres
outside the capital Anantanarivo, government spokesperson Didier
Houlder said.
Houlder said all Ratsiraka's ministers were present at
Thursday's meeting except one, who was in the provinces.
Ratsiraka's challenger Marc Ravalomanana, the popular mayor of
Antananarivo, has refused to take part in a second round vote,
insisting that he won the first round ballot outright.
He has rejected as flawed an official voting tally that gave him a slight lead over Ratsiraka in the December 16 vote but not an absolute majority.
On February 22, Ravalomanana declared himself president of the
Indian Ocean island and began setting up an alternative government.
His "ministers" have moved into government premises in the
capital, one of his strongholds, while Ratsiraka loyalists have set up a temporary alternative capital in the country's main port, Toasmasina, and set up roadblocks to prevent supplies of fuel and other basic necessities reaching Antananarivo from the port.
On Wednesday, Ravalomanana said he was prepared to meet
Ratsiraka if the roadblocks strangling the capital were dismantled.
Won't meet with Ravalomanana
But the president had told his colleagues a meeting was "not on the agenda" and that it was "out of the question" to lift the
barricades unless Ravalomanana dissolved his interim government,
two sources close to Ratsiraka said on Thursday.
An informed political source had said on Tuesday that the
political foes were likely to meet within the ensuing 48 hours.
But Ratsiraka ruled this out on Wednesday night because 48
pro-Ravalomanana members of parliament had on Tuesday named their
own interim "speaker" for the National Assembly, one of his aides
said.
Ratsiraka has also rejected a suggestion by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) that he form a national reconciliation
government to end the bitter power struggle with his self-declared successor.
"Holding a second round is the only issue," Ratsiraka told
journalists in a rare public pronouncement on Saturday, declaring
that he was prepared for talks on this point alone.
The political crisis in the former French colony was peaceful
until early March, when clashes between supporters of the political foes killed at least two people in Toamasina.
A demonstrator was killed last Friday in clashes between
security forces and Ravalomanana supporters in Antananarivo. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA
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