2023-10-20 09:45:52
The Prefect of Antananarivo, General Angelo Ravelonarivo, once again prohibits the demonstration for the opposition collective. In a letter addressed to the Collective of 11 candidates, Angelo Ravelonarivo announced that from Thursday October 19, 2023, any demonstration outside the electoral campaign must imperatively avoid disrupting public order, including freedom of movement in the capital. . After this decision, the noose tightens around the 11 presidential contenders and the margins for maneuvers are reduced.
General Angelo Ravelonarivo justifies this initiative following clashes during the demonstration organized by the Candidates’ Collective on Tuesday October 17 in Andavamamba. In his letter, the Prefect states the existence of one deceased person and several injured.
The Prefect declared that the Collective of candidates had benefited from “administrative tolerance” for two weeks where they were authorized to occupy the streets of the capital on a daily basis. He insists on the fact that the members of the Candidates’ Collective never wanted to comply with the legal provisions for any public meeting and demonstration on the road.
Angelo Ravelonarivo raises rallies with “demands that go beyond the electoral process. According to the Prefect, for two weeks, the demonstrators “brutalized the police, calling for civil disobedience inciting discrimination and racial hatred”. He even speaks of violent and provocative actions against other citizens who do not support the cause of the Collective.
“You will therefore be responsible for any excesses, violence and other excesses that could result from the illegal demonstrations that you organize,” warns the Prefect.
This new provision comes just days after the international community called on the need to let citizens demonstrate freely. The collective of candidates, the main target of this new provision, has always described its demonstration as peaceful. For them, it is the intervention of the police and the provocation of the political mercenaries of the opposing party which disrupt their movement. Angelo Ravelonarivo’s letter demonstrates proof of bias on the part of the authorities, affirms the Collective which is planning a demonstration on the Bel Air side of Ampandrana today.
Repressed on several occasions, the movement initiated by the collective of 11 candidates was marred by violence and left several injured, including the candidates themselves. Just yesterday, the gendarmes launched tear gas grenades to disperse the demonstrators in Itaosy. Unfortunately, tear gas caused casualties in a school and the Basic Health Center (CSB) in this neighborhood.
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