Madagascar Politics

European Union observer mission overseeing Madagascar’s elections said on Monday this week that ex-president Andry Rajoelina had bribed two local officials with a total of five thousand US dollars. Rajoelina has rejected these allegations by EU observers in a report which outlined that the observer mission had "noted candidates committed breaches" ahead of the November 7 poll. According to preliminary the time of these reports, Rajoelina was leading the election race ahead of rival Marc Ravalomanana, also a former president. We are now joined by: • Frank Lekaba, researcher at the Africa Institute of South Africa unit of the Human Sciences Research Council.• Prof. Dirk Kotzé is a Professor in Political Sciences at the University of South Africa (UNISA). Furthermore, he was involved in the official training programme in South Africa for the Government of South Sudan and with the mediation process in Madagascar. • Liesl Louw-Vaudran, the senior research Consultant at the Institute for Security Studies.