President rejects call to compare votes

There are indications that Antananarivo mayor Marc Ravalomanana may have to settle for a second round of voting to determine whether he beat Madagascan President Didier Ratsiraka in presidential polls held on 16 December.

On Friday Ravalomanana and a leading Catholic cleric called on opposition supporters to suspend widespread demonstrations which were aimed at pressuring the government to compare their tallies with that of local election observers. The call ended a week of demonstrations which began on a violent note but then continued peacefully.

According to election observers, Ravalomanana won about 53 percent of the vote. But according to unofficial government figures, he and Ratsiraka won under 50 percent each, making a second round of voting necessary to decide the new president. The observers on Friday called for international pressure on the Ratsiraka government to compare tallies before 28 January, when the High Constitutional Court is expected to announce the final results.

However, UN Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative Adama Guindo told IRIN on Tuesday that Ratsiraka had rejected the call for a review of government and observers' ballot results.

"The president met the diplomatic corps and he refused any option of comparing the tallies and indicated that if they had to compare them, then they would have to compare the tallies for all six candidates. He said the process would be time-consuming and the end result was not guaranteed," said Guindo.

However, he said that Ravalomanana had embarked on a countrywide tour "to try and build support for what he referred to as the need to respect people's choice".

While the US government on Monday called for a peaceful resolution to the election, Guindo said donor community in the country was waiting for the official results before considering any action. He said it was unlikely that the government would allow international observers for the second round of voting as they did not do so for the first round.