Madagascar president says he won't recognise poll rulin

Sapa-AFP 28.04.2002

Didier Ratsiraka, Madagascar's outgoing President, said today he would not recognise a high court ruling due tomorrow on the outcome of December's contested presidential poll.

Ratsiraka, who returned to Madagascar today after more than a week from a private visit to France, told reporters he considered the High Constitutional Court (HCC) to be "illegal." His rejection in advance of the court's ruling is likely to deepen Madagascar's political crisis, which carries the threat of partition and even civil war.

"I do not recognise this High Court," Ratsiraka said soon after arriving in his coastal stronghold of Toamasina. "It is illegal." Ratsiraka's supporters believe the HCC will tomorrow declare Marc Ravalomanana, the maverick politician and businessman, president on the basis of a recount following the December poll. They have warned that should this occur, they will step up a blockade of Antananarivo and to declare the independence of at least three of the country's six provinces.

Under a deal signed April 18 in Dakar, Senegal by Ratsiraka and Ravalomanana, all roadblocks were meant to have been removed from the Indian Ocean island state. 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. - Sapa-AFP