29 mars 2024

Madagascar: A letter from the director of the President of the Republic has been leaked.

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The upcoming elections are mentioned in this letter from the Malagasy presidency. The letter between Romy Andrinarisoa, cabinet director of President Andry Rajoelina, and Isabelle Delattre, ambassador of the European Union, has leaked to the press, in which the presidency of the Republic asks for help from the European Union, because the account is no longer appropriate to organize the election.

Several issues were discussed, related to the upcoming presidential elections, including the budget. The Electoral Commission of Madagascar has set the cost of organising the elections at around 30 million euros. The State has only been able to release 8 million. International donors are therefore called upon to put their hands in their pockets.

Authentic letter

The signature and name of Romy Andrinarisoa are affixed at the bottom of the document. Informed sources have attested to the authenticity of the letter, the source media said. President Rajoelina's chief of staff sent the letter to the European Union representative to ask for help, promising an effort on the Malagasy side to have the budget of the CENI (Independent National Electoral Commission) reduced by half, in the manner of a basket fund. The electoral commission needs financial support from foreign countries to "strengthen the capacity of its agents, print single ballots as well as set up a communication system for the secure and rapid transmission of results".

But unfortunately, this letter was leaked to the press, with all the newspapers exposing the misery of the state coffers. The problem is that the European Union had already indicated that its contribution would be marginal. The United Nations does not want to get too involved either. This is the same situation as in 2018 when CENI had to cobble together the organisation of the election with limited means, while the big candidates had huge budgets for their campaigns.