Madagascar protests halted

Mr Ravalomanana's supporters say he won outright

Madagascar opposition presidential candidate Marc Ravalomanana has temporarily halted a week of huge demonstrations.

Mr Ravalomanana is a political newcomer

Crowds as large as 100,000 people have gathered each day this week in the capital, Antananarivo, in support of Mr Ravalomanana, who is the city's mayor.

Mr Ravalomanana insists he won last month's presidential election outright and does not need to enter a second round of voting with President Didier Ratsiraka.

He told the BBC he wanted the High Constitutional Court to collect all official documentation and compare it with the findings of his own party.

The court is expected to announce official results later this month, but the mayor of the capital said demonstrations would resume if the result was not re-examined.

'Outright victory'

Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered again on the streets of the capital on Friday morning and then marched to the municipal stadium where Mr Ravalomanana addressed them.

A spokesman for Mr Ravalomanana has said their own results show he won the 16 December polls with just over 52%, enough for outright victory.

Admiral Ratsiraka has ruled for 23 years

But results from the Interior Ministry give Mr Ravalomanana 46% against 40% for Mr Ratsiraka.

The accredited Election Monitoring Consortium has given Mr Ravalomanana 50.5% based on returns from 75% of all polling stations.

Mr Ravalomanana's supporters believe the results have been manipulated.

They want the court to release the votes from each polling station - an appeal which has been echoed by election observers.

Mr Ravalomanana has also called on the church to mediate.

In 1991, street protests forced Mr Ratsiraka to introduce multi-party elections and he lost the first contest in 1993, before being re-elected three years later.