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Africa leaders mull Madagascar vote without two rivals

By AFP
Madagascar Andry Rajoelina could be left out of a future poll.  By Andreea Campeanu AFPFile
AUG 18, 2012 LISTEN
Andry Rajoelina could be left out of a future poll. By Andreea Campeanu (AFP/File)

MAPUTO (AFP) - Southern African leaders were Saturday mulling presidential elections in Madagascar that would exclude the two main rivals -- strongman Andry Rajoelina and ousted Marc Ravalomanana, a mediator said.

Seychelles Foreign Minister Jean-Paul Adams told AFP that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit was discussing the proposal to end a standoff between the two rivals that has forestalled elections in the troubled country.

"The idea that neither of them present themselves was considered with attention by the summit," Adam said at the two-day summit that began Friday in the Mozambican capital Maputo.

"While the summit recognises the right of each individual to present themselves to elections, they have taken note ... that if both presidents were not to stand, then that would facilitate the whole process of appeasement leading to peaceful elections," he said.

Neither side has yet reacted to the SADC proposals.

The 15-nation bloc suspended Madagascar from its ranks in 2009 after Rajoelina toppled Ravalomanana.

The question of Ravolomanana's return from exile in South Africa has been the main stumbling block to the holding of elections to end the three-year crisis on Africa's largest island.

Rajoelina says Ravalomanana should be prevented, at all costs, from returning home.

Ravalomanana was sentenced in abstentia to life imprisonment over the killing of 36 protesters by presidential guards during unrest in 2009, and currently faces life in prison with hard labour if he returns home.

Adam says SADC is working on a plan to ensure peace and security should Ravalomanana go back home.

"There is agreement that the return of president Ravalomanana will be regulated in such a way that there is no threat to the security of Madagascar and also no threat to himself," Adam said.

The Seychelles has in recent weeks hosted two failed mediation attempts to get the two leaders to patch up their differences.

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