March 16th, 2011´s legislative elections: the law violated from scratch

Voters have been called upon casting votes in March 16th, 2011´s legislative elections. Did the official call comply with the law? It apparently did not. The decision stemmed from a cabinet meeting held on December 14th, 2010. However, the law came into effect as soon as it came to be published in the press, long before its publication in the official journal. It was not yet widely broadcasted on December 15th and 16th, 2010,  a press statement from the transitional leadership unveiled it on December 19th. But are there really 90 days as required by the law between the official announcement and the polling process? Not really.

It is neither the authorities´ first nor last violation of the law in the run of straining to legalize a power granted by an unconstitutional government change, a putsch, namely by the installation of new and devoted institutions. The HAT decided to cast early but legally baseless countrywide communal elections on its allies´ bidding expressed during its national conference, repressed any attempt to militate against the decision, subsequently arrested the president of  the association of Madagascar´s mayors, and finally opened the eyes and stepped back.

March 16th, 2011´s legislative elections cannot expect to be legal, even though the official call to voters is being imposed and accepted as such. The law is actually forbidding any polling process during the rainy season, before mid April. The violation of this law is allowing the authorities to pave the way for politicians devoted to its cause as early as possible, as well as to emphasize its will´s ascendency. An new openness government is besides being prepared, though the current Vital government is already supposed to be it.

For having proved thoroughly unreliable and submitted to the HAT´s will, the High Constitutional Court, let alone the HAT´s electoral Commission are expected to stand against the HAT this time around and claim that March 16th 2011´s elections are illegal. Both institutions kept silent when the early communal elections were being announced.

The HAT is dying for getting in full control as early as possible, in order to deter any internal attempt to rise up, and also to compel the international community to accept the outstanding amount of irreversible changes.

The HAT´s new institutions´credibility is however still an eluding dream, since the HAT itself is actually unable to comply with the laws it has itself imposed. The electoral Commission´s closed eyes on state led violations at the law´s expenses had quite a restricted effect. The incoming legislative elections are now a very big cause for doubts