New riots over Madagascar poll result

ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar -- Police have fired teargas and stun grenades to disperse tens of thousands of protesters unhappy over the result of presidential elections in Madagascar.

The crowds are demanding that opposition candidate Marc Ravalomanana be declared winner of the polls.

Witnesses said the police drove a crowd estimated by residents at 30,000 from the capital's central 13 May Square on Monday.

However, the demonstrators reassembled in nearby streets and continued their protest.

The pro-Ravalomanana protest was the second in four days.

Between 5,000 and 10,000 protesters took to the streets on Friday to accuse the government of falsifying the results and demand Ravalomanana be declared outright winner.

Madagascar is expected to hold a second round of voting after provisional results showed no candidate had won an absolute majority in presidential elections held on the Indian Ocean island on December 16.

Provisional results released by the government showed Ravalomanana took 46.59 percent of the vote and veteran President Didier Ratsiraka 40.59 percent.

Four other candidates made little impression.

The demonstrators have demanded that the High Constitutional Court declare Ravalomanana the outright winner of the polls in the first round of voting.

Any second round vote would be held 30 days after the High Constitutional Court gives its stamp of approval to the results, which could be issued sometime this week.

Ravalomanana's campaign team say their tally shows he won 52 percent of the vote compared with 35 percent for Ratsiraka, who has been in power for more than 20 years.

"We will defend the sovereign choice of the people to the last," Ravalomanana said at the demonstration on Friday.

"We will never allow the voice of the ballot box to be hijacked," he said.

Both sides have complained of unfair play in the elections on the island off southeast Africa.

Ratsiraka's team has said it noted several cases of vote manipulation, particularly in Antananarivo where Ravalomanana enjoys his strongest support.

Ravalomanana, a self-made dairy millionaire who began his career hawking yoghurts, emerged from political obscurity to win election as mayor of the capital in 1999 and has promised to raise living standards on the island of 15 million people, one of the poorest countries in the world.