The Malagasy opposition tried to protest again on Monday, November 6, but the demonstrators were dispersed and one of the candidates for the presidential election, the first round of which is scheduled for November 16, was arrested, he said. -we learned from the police.
After renewed tension on Saturday, when the police prevented an opposition demonstration with tear gas in Antananarivo, a small procession of opponents attempted once again to reach the emblematic Place du 13- May despite a prefectural ban. But the center was surrounded by police, AFP noted. The sixty-year-old candidate Jean Jacques Ratsietison, economist and founder of an association defending the purchasing power of Malagasy people, was arrested at the end of the morning, noted several journalists on site.
Madagascar has been shaken for weeks by a fierce electoral battle between the government and around ten candidates who will oppose the outgoing president, Andry Rajoelina, at the polls. Gathered in a collective within which everyone nevertheless presents themselves individually for the supreme office, the opponents, who have been regularly calling for more than a month to take to the streets, denounce an “institutional coup d’état” orchestrated according to them by Andry Rajoelina and demand a “free and fair” election.
The general staff bringing together the police, gendarmerie and army proposed, during a press briefing on Monday, to ensure the protection of all thirteen candidates for the presidential election, without distinction, and their families. “We have heard rumors of plans to attack certain candidates,” said a spokesperson, clarifying that this protection did not apply to political meetings or demonstrations.
Roland Ratsiraka, candidate of the collective, was indignant at the arrest of Mr. Ratsietison, affirming that it was “not a solution”: “We filed a complaint with the administrative court against the decision of the prefect [to ban the demonstrations on the Place du 13-Mai] The prefect does not respect the law,” he accused. Another presidential candidate, Auguste Paraina, denounced the “dictatorship” of this arrest of his colleague “in the middle of the street”. “We’re not going to stop, we’re not afraid! “, he told AFP.