Madagascar court confirms Robinson-Rajaonarimampianina run- off

A presidential run-off between Jean Louis Robinson and Henry Rajaonarimampianina in December was confirmed on Friday by the Madagascar Special Electoral Court (CES). CES President Rakotozafy Francois said Robinson took the lead with 21.16 percent of the votes. He is followed by Rajaonarimampianina, who won 15.85 percent of the votes during the first round of presidential election held Oct. 25. The results are slightly different from the provisional outcome published on Nov. 8 by the Independent National Election Commission (CENIT), which showed that Robinson got 21.44 percent of the votes cast while Rajaonarimampianina garnered 15.68 percent. The CES, which is the only institution in power to judge and proclaim the definitive results after an overall check, cancelled 21,474 votes which did not have heavy impacts on the initial results announced by CENIT. The two leading candidates will enter the second round set for Dec. 20 as none of the 33 candidates in the first round won 50 percent of votes, Francois said.