Malagasy general election, 2013
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Presidential and parliamentary elections were held in Madagascar on 20 December 2013, following a first round of presidential elections on 25 October. The presidential elections in December were a runoff between Jean Louis Robinson and Hery Rajaonarimampianina, the top two candidates to emerge from the first round of voting in October. The official results of the second round were announced on 7 January 2014 with Rajaonarimampianina proclaimed the victor with nearly 54% of the vote.
The last elected president, Marc Ravalomanana, was unconstitutionally removed from power by mass protests led by Mayor of Antananarivo Andry Rajoelina in early 2009. Rajoelina dissolved the Senate and National Assembly and took power as the president of the High Transitional Authority (HAT) he created to govern the country in the lead up to elections, which he promised to hold within 18 months. The HAT repeatedly delayed the parliamentary and presidential elections, which were scheduled separately for various dates before finally being merged in May 2011 and postponed to September 2011, May 2012, November 2012, May 2013, July 2013 and August 2013. The 2010 constitutional referendum introduced a new constitution that barred candidates who had not lived in Madagascar for the previous six months, effectively excluding opposition leaders living in exile, including Ravalomanana, who had resided in South Africa since his ouster.
The international community was actively involved in negotiating an end to the political impasse in Madagascar and maintained legitimate and transparent elections as a precondition to international recognition of Madagascar's head of state. In 2012 the African Union demanded that both top candidates - Rajoelina and Ravalomanana - withdraw their candidature. Ravalomanana accepted in December 2012, and Rajoelina followed suit in February 2013. Shortly afterward, Lalao Ravalomanana, wife of the former president, submitted her candidature, causing Rajoelina to add his name to the list of candidates just after the deadline; former president Didier Ratsiraka also submitted his candidature despite having returned from exile in France too recently to meet the six month requirement. This prompted the international community to withdraw funding for the election then scheduled for May 2013, leading to further delays. All three candidates were removed from the approved list by an electoral court in August 2013, and the international community recommitted to providing financial support for the 2013 elections.
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