Madagascar president defies protests

Ratsiraka's rallies are dwarfed by opposition protests

By the BBC's Alastair Leithead in Antananarivo, Madagascar

The mass protests on the streets of Madagascar's capital, Antananarivo, have been a pretty one-sided affair.

On one occasion as many as half a million people crowded into Independence Avenue and the surrounding streets.

It is easy to be blown away by the numbers, and forget incumbent President Didier Ratsiraka, who they are literally falling over each other to demonstrate against.

The opposition claims Ratsiraka rigged the ballot

However many opposition supporters march through the streets and go out on general strike, the presidential election is still a two-horse race, and at last the press had a chance to see the president in action and to hear his point of view.

The call came to the hotel at 0200 and by 1000 the international media were flying over the beautiful monsoon-season green landscape of the Malagasy countryside in one of the president's helicopters.

The destination was a village on the east coast of the island, a small gathering of huts and clearings in the lagoon land.

Reaching rural voters

It was a well chosen site for the president to show that his rival Marc Ravalomanana is not the only one who can rustle up t-shirt wearing supporters, seemingly happy to hand him their vote.

Ratsiraka is wooing rural voters with cash

While the capital has been the core of the opposition's ballot box success story, rural Madagascar, where most people live, is a lot more difficult to work out, simply because it is so isolated - even more so in the rainy season.

More than 1,000 people crowded around the clearing in Nosy Varika as the helicopters bearing the president and the media came in to land.

Most people wore red headbands - the president's colour. Others were sporting banners and flags.

Didier Ratsiraka took to the hastily-erected stage. A length of rope was quickly added to help the tarpaulin roof stay put, and after several abortive efforts with the sound system, one of the faithful was dispatched to jam a screwdriver into the speaker wiring to make sure everyone in the crowd could hear.

By this stage it wasn't especially necessary, as the numbers had dropped to around 500.

Cash handouts

Those who left may well have regretted it, as the "father of the nation" put his hands in his pockets and started giving out money.

It is not the hardest or most subtle way of winning people's support. But after a few embarrassing attempts to start rallying chants that left row upon row of puzzled and quiet faces, millions of Malagasy francs were handed out in thick wads to war veterans, elders and students who could answer one of the president's quiz questions.

The opposition protests have brought the capital to a standstill

Millions of francs may sound a lot, and in fact the money was worth about $4,000 - a vast amount in a poor rural community.

The flags were waved with a little more vigour and a quick bridge-opening ceremony was hijacked by the cameras and the reporters scrambling for the president's first wise words for a month or so.

They were not disappointed. Whether in English, French or Malagasy, the message was the same: "Look at how much support I have here.

"The second round of elections is on - and I'm going to win. And if anyone cheated in the first round it was the opposition."

Voters split

The area was once close to his heartland, but despite reports of opposition supporters throwing stones at Ratsiraka campaigners and causing violence in the villages, there is now a split. As many as half say they are voting for change - perhaps even more. It is no longer as simple as town and country.

The questions followed the president onto the plane, where he had to go to sleep to avoid the inquisitive voices.

It was an awkward media event. Carefully staged, but clumsily executed, you couldn't help asking that if this was the best President Ratsiraka could come up with, he does not appear to pose much of a threat in the second round.

As the press were emptied out at the airport to find their own way back to wherever they came from - when many taxis are on strike and the airport's closed - the thoughts were much the same - apprehension.

The one thing that did come out of the president's little photo opportunity was that he is not a man who seems prepared to give ground - he wants to keep his presidency and win the second ballot.

The opposition might question just how far he might be prepared to go in order to achieve that goal.