EU Presidency statement on elections in Madagascar

The European Union welcomes the fact that the parliamentary elections in Madagascar passed off calmly on Sunday 15 December 2002 after a campaign free of violent incident. It is also pleased that there appears to have been a high turnout.

The European Union welcomes the generally favourable view of polling day taken by the EU Election Observation Mission. It also notes, however, the weaknesses found by the Mission, in particular the electoral rolls, which could benefit from improvement, and isolated cases of intimidation.

The Union hopes that vote counting and the calculation of results will also be conducted in a satisfactory and transparent manner until the official announcement of the final results.

The Central and Eastern European countries associated with the European Union, the associated countries Cyprus, Malta and Turkey, and the EFTA countries, members of the European Economic Area, align themselves with this declaration.

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