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80 pct of polling stations finish counting: Madagascar electoral commission
Nov 04,2013
ANTANANARIVO, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Up to 80 percent of polling stations have finished vote counting since Oct. 25, when the Indian Ocean island country held the much anticipated presidential election to end a crisis since late 2008, the electoral commission said Monday.

Out of the 20,001 polling stations throughout the country, the Independent National Election Commission (CENIT) has already checked 18,000, representing 80 percent of all, CENIT media officer Valerie Andrianavalona told Xinhua in an phone interview.

The counting is on time because the CENIT has promised to publish election results 10 days after the receipt of the latest package from the polling stations, Valerie Andrianavalona said.

According to the results available, candidate Jean Louis Robinson temporarily took the lead with 23.98 percent of votes, followed by 15.17 percent scored by Hery Rajaonarimampianina.

Under Madagascar's electoral code, the two leading candidates will enter a run-off election if none of the 33 candidates in first round won 50 percent of votes.

The CENIT has the right to publish full results as it is the main organizer of the elections, but the Special Electoral Court is in power to declare the definitive outcome 15 days after studying the results published by the CENIT.