A 36-Way race In Madagascar

MADAGASCAR

The 36-Way Race

Madagascar is in the height of campaign season, with 36 candidates, including four ex-heads of state, running for the presidency.

“Hidden from the world’s view or interest a Titanic battle for democracy and human rights over greed and self-interest is being waged in little-known Madagascar,” wrote Peter Mann, a communications consultant to former president and presidential candidate Marc Ravalomanana, in the Maverick, a South African news outlet.

The stakes for Ravalomanana are especially high for the Nov. 7 vote and possible Dec. 19 runoff. He was president in 2009 when military leaders deposed him in a coup. The man who orchestrated the ouster and led the transition government under the generals, Andry Rajoelina, is also running.

The incumbent, Hery Rajaonarimampianina, is also seeking re-election. Rajaonarimampianina was the winner in 2013, the first election held after the coup.

National security and corruption are at the top of everyone’s agenda. Graft affects every level of society, Agence France-Presse reported, noting that Madagascar ranks 155 out of 180 on Transparency International’s corruption perception index.

The government, for example, recently took flak for attempting to sell the country’s stockpile of illegally felled rosewood despite an embargo under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the environmental website Mongabay reported. The kicker: The plan was to pay local timber tycoons for their wood, essentially rewarding them for illegal logging.

Amnesty International also recently found that Malagasy unlucky enough to fall into pretrial detention in the island’s filthy, overpopulated prisons often suffered diseases like tuberculosis.

“A catalog of failures in Madagascar’s criminal justice system means people are suffering in prison for years before they have their day in court,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s regional director for Southern Africa, in a press release. “One man accused of stealing cattle had been in detention for three and a half years.”

While the candidates have plenty of material for their stump speeches, don’t think the large number of politicians vying for the top office reflects the strength of democracy in Madagascar.

Rather, the presence of a whopping 36 candidates in the race reflects the patronage politics that are common on the island. Powerbroker candidates run so they can put their weight behind front-runners in the runoff in exchange for jobs later.

“It’s political calculations,” Marcus Schneider, director of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, told African Arguments. “There is a lot of ethnic voting. In the second round, those [smaller] candidates will support the big two: this is where support gets bought. [They] might also get a job as a minister.”

Politics works that way everywhere, of course, though rarely to such an extent. Hopefully, the enormous slate of runners helps the Malagasy reach consensus about how to move forward.