2002 Malagasy Political Crisis

The 2002 Malagasy Political Crisis (Malagasy: Krizy Politika Malagasy 2002) covers the period of mass protests and violent conflict following a dispute over the results of the 2001 Malagasy presidential election. It took place in Madagascar between January-July 2002 and ended with the swearing-in of President Marc Ravalomanana and flight of former president Didier Ratsiraka.

Main Candidates

Didier Ratsiraka

Didier Ratsiraka announced his candidacy for president on 26 June, 2001. A formal naval officer, Ratsiraka first came to power in 1975 and ruled Madagascar as president from 1975 to 1992 before losing to Albert Zafy in the 1992-93 Malagasy presidential election. He returned to office after defeating Zafy in the 1996 Malagasy presidential elections, and was the incumbent candidate at the time of the 2001 election. When Ratsiraka announced his presidency, there were no serious challengers and he was widely expected to win another term.

Marc Ravalomanana

Business tycoon Marc Ravalomanana was a political newcomer at the time of the 2001 election. Owner of Tiko, the country's dominant dairy products provider, he had served as mayor of Madagascar's capital Antananarivo since 1999 but had not held national office before the 2001 elections. However, by October 2001 he led Ratsiraka in the polls, thanks in part to his reputation as a successful businessman and to his use of Tiko distribution networks to subtly push campaign slogans. In December, Norbert Ratsirahonana, the presidential candidate of the AVI, had withdrawn from the race and endorsed Ravalomanana, which provided bases of support for Ravalomanana outside of his core territories in the capital.

Ravalomanana was also a member of Madagascar's ''merina'' ethnic group, which occupies the highlands on the interior of the country. While many ''merina'' candidates in preceding elections had been disadvantaged by their ethnic origin, Ravalomanana was not, nor did the post-election violence become organized upon explicitly ethnic lines.

December 2001 Election

Changes to Electoral Process

On 3 September, 2001, Ratsiraka used his presidential authority to enact several changes to the election process. First, he decreed that individuals had to register their candidacy for president by 27 October of that year and simultaneously raised the registration fee, which had the effect of locking out smaller parties and independent candidates that couldn't raise the additional funds within the short timeframe. He also restricted the period for campaigning from 25 November to 15 December and blocked news agencies not aligned with the incumbent government from covering the election. Finally, he prohibited campaign slogans or promotional materials such as posters from being displayed on public buildings or commercial products such as those sold by Ravalomanana's Tiko brand.

Balloting

Ballots for the presidential election were cast on 16 December 2001. The first districts to report were the capital and major metropolitan areas. Ravalomanana took nearly 80% in Antananarivo and a majority in the other urban areas. While there were few irregularities reported with the actual casting of the ballots, the counting of the votes became a source of major controversy. Under Article 47 of Madagascar's constitution, if a candidate is unable to secure an absolute majority in the first round of voting the election proceeds to a runoff between the two candidates with the most votes. Ravalomanana and Ratsiraka were the clear frontrunners, but whether Ravalomanana had secured the necessary majority to avoid a runoff election was heavily disputed.

For the first time in Madagascar's history, non-governmental services were able to conduct their own vote counts. Besides the National Electoral Council (CNE) of the Ministry of the Interior, two other groups provided counts for the 2001 elections: The Committee to Elect Marc Ravalomanana (KMMR), and the Consortium of Election Observers (CNOE), a non-partisan, non-governmental group. However, under pressure from Ratsiraka the CNE had halted the parallel count process with only two thirds of the ballots counted. In the end, the three groups reported widely different counts (see table below). Ravalomanana's camp was able to dispute the results in part because of a network of helicopters and all-terrain vehicles that retrieved copies of the results from remote polling stations and fed them into a central computer system. Because his own figures differed so widely from the government's official tally, Ravalomanana pressed the High Constitutional Court (HCC), the sole body empowered to certify election results, to release the tallies from the individual polling stations to the public.

Buoyed by initial results and KMMR counts, Ravalomanana supporters began to celebrate in the capital, and by 4 January 2002 tens of thousands of individuals were taking to the streets to demand that their candidate be recognized as the winner.

Election Aftermath

Standoff over Results

In the midst of the growing tension over the election results, Ratsiraka continued to insist that he would abide by whatever decision the High Constitutional court handed down. Pro-Ravalomanana demonstrators became embroiled in violent interactions with the police, and on 7 January 2002 at least 20 people were injured and a child was reportedly killed by police tear gas. Crowds of at least 100,000 people were reported.

On 16 January 2002, the HCC ordered that the CNE undertake a closed-door recount of the votes without oversight from candidate representatives or the CNOE. Ravalomanana immediately objected, arguing that the CNE was biased in favor of Ratsiraka, but the recount went ahead anyways. The new CNE total gave Ravalomanana 46.11% of the vote to Ratsiraka's 40.89%. On 25 January 2002 the HCC certified this recount and ruled that a runoff would take place between Ratsiraka and Ravalomanana on 24 February 2002.

The following day Ravalomanana called for a general strike in the capital to protest this ruling, which then began the following Monday, 28 January 2002. This strike involved between 500,000-1,000,000 people and shut down banks, businesses, and international flights from the capital. The United Nations Security Council took note of the situation and issued and appeal for both sides to respect the rule of law and engage in a constitutionally-sound election process. Amara Essy

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