Rédaction Africa Links 24 with lexpress
Published on 2024-03-13 02:45:00
Waiting for the decrees establishing the rules of the game for the legislative elections is taking a long time.
The coalition with the President of the Republic aims to obtain a majority in the National Assembly for the upcoming legislative elections. One hundred fifty-two seats are available.
This is logical. Every political party or coalition competing in the legislative elections seeks to obtain a majority in the National Assembly, especially the ruling party, in order to consolidate and expand its influence even in the most remote constituencies. Although the orange coalition has not yet disclosed the list of candidates for the May legislative elections, the intensification of primaries aims to select candidates close to the population to increase the chances of victory.
However, the delay in publishing the various decrees setting the rules of the game for these elections is perceived by the opposition as a political calculation favorable to the orange candidates. “Maybe they intend to postpone the elections. I’m not sure, but what is certain is that this delay in issuing these decrees is a result of an unhealthy political calculation,” criticizes Rivo Rakotovao, the national president of HVM. In order to obtain a majority in the National Assembly, contenders will need to secure more than seventy-six seats, considering the one hundred fifty-two seats available with the recent creation of the Antanimora Sud district.
Voting System
The goal for political headquarters is to sweep the districts where two deputies are to be elected. But to achieve this, the candidate must obtain a qualified majority, i.e., a number of votes higher than the absolute majority. Generally, if the absolute majority means obtaining more than 50% of the votes, the qualified or reinforced majority must be higher than that. With the multitude of usual candidates in Malagasy legislative elections, it will be difficult for a candidate, even from a major political coalition, to vie for the two seats to be filled. “It is possible for a candidate to win both seats in a district with two seats, but for that to happen, they must obtain the qualified or reinforced majority,” explains Soava Andriamarotafika, the general rapporteur of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
As of now, unless there is a last-minute change, the voting methods will be either a single-round majoritarian vote for constituencies with a single seat to be filled, or a list-based proportional representation vote in a single round. Organic Law 2019-002 states in its article 4 that the rule to be used will be “the electoral quotient and the highest average, without any preferential voting or incomplete lists.”
According to experts, this rule of the highest average gives a certain advantage to major political parties at the expense of independents.
Read the original article(French) on lexpress.mg
