Madagascar’s outgoing president Andry Rajoelina expressed little doubt as he spoke to AFP about his predictions for the country’s upcoming elections.
“I’m going to win, that’s for sure, and in the first round,” said the leader, who will seek re-election on Thursday and is banking on popular support and divine help to get him over the line.
Voters in the Indian Ocean island nation will elect a president on November 16, but the run-up to the poll has been marred by near daily opposition demonstrations after disputes over its regularity. Rajoelina, 49, became Africa’s youngest head of state in 2009 when he took power on the back of a coup. After not running in the 2013 election due to international pressure, he was voted back into power in 2018 and has since held the reins in a country that remains among the poorest in the world despite vast natural resources.
“My support is the people. Then my wife. And first of all, God, who guides me and protects me,” Rajoelina said on Saturday night, visibly drained after several hours of campaigning.
Earlier in the day, thousands had turned out to cheer him on in the eastern city of Toamasina, Madagascar’s economic hub and largest port. It was the outgoing president’s last visit before the first round vote.
While the island’s second-largest city is accessible by road from the capital Antananarivo, dilapidated infrastructure hampers the journey. Rajoelina arrived swiftly via private plane, with little time to see whether the opposition had staged one of their regular protests against him. “The opposition wants chaos and to take the population into the streets, but they can’t do it because the population supports me,” Rajoelina said.