Thursday, September 26, 2013

Exciting times in Madagascar...

You can feel it in the air... you can hear it in the streets...you can see it on the posters!

It looks, feels and tastes like it is REALLY going to happen this time. Elections WILL be held on October 25 of the year 2013.

The official electoral campaign opened this week. No less than 33 candidates are running for president. After 4,5 years of paralysis, countless false promises, and a dozen of electoral postponements, Madagascar's population will have a chance to vote in one of the 20,000 polling stations that are being set up with EU and UN assistance.

Only the most cynical among the cynics are still saying: 'nah...it won't happen'. I am not one of them.

The 33 candidates of the 2013 elections in Madagascar....
After a first round of elections in October, only two candidates will remain. The second round will then be in December.

I wish all candidates the best. Or, as the Express Newspaper put it:  'Que le moins mauvais gagne' (not my words), literally translated as: may the least bad win. :-)  


p.s. more episodes of "Exciting Times in Madagascar" Season 1, will follow soon.


2 comments:

  1. Thanks Susanne for your interesting updates.
    I like to hear stories of faraway Madagascar :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. It will surely happen but will it be a fair and free election? I doubt.
    As this freelance journalist, Emilie Filou tweeted three weeks ago
    "L'Express is not impressed with the 2nd round of elections on 20 Dec in midst of rainy season
    https://twitter.com/EmilieFilou/status/377453861364969472/photo/1

    I hope it won't be 16 Dec 2001, version 2.0
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malagasy_presidential_election,_2001

    A Malagasy Reader

    ReplyDelete