During election periods, the risk of mobilizing actors who seek to fuel hatred and polarization increases. The Great Island bitterly experienced this during the presidential election held in a particular context.
On June 21, 2023, the Facebook page Actus Mada, a platform supporting the presidential camp, published information that quickly spread across the internet. “Marc Ravalomanana is also naturalized French. I was stunned to see this nationality of Mr. Ravalomanana,” the page posted along with two documents, including a file containing the alleged excerpt of the decree published in the French Official Journal. The publication has since been deleted.
Amid the turmoil caused by the disclosure of Andry Rajoelina’s French nationality—and the upheaval it triggered—the loyalists of the “Orange” leader attempted a clumsy counterattack aimed at Marc Ravalomanana. Although the lie seemed too big to be true, some believed it before the media outlet VaovaoCheck took up the matter and confirmed the information was false.
This fact-checking media is a joint initiative of Transparency International – Initiative Madagascar, the NGO MALINA, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Madagascar, and Actions Médias Francophones Madagascar, supported by the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF). Some articles from this online platform are published in this issue of MALINA Le Mag.
Essential Tool
The electoral process took on the appearance of a pitched battle between supporters of candidate Andry Rajoelina and those of the collective of 11, then 10 candidates. Information was at the heart of the escalating tensions and, at times, sparked very sharp conflicts, especially when “community” issues or human tragedies were highlighted. For example, various pages reported that former Prime Minister Monja Roindefo had brought in Antandroy men to “bolster” the ranks of protesters from the collective of 10 candidates. This information was quickly refuted by VaovaoCheck through fact-checking, a journalistic method increasingly adopted in newsrooms and the media landscape, especially at a time when the instant nature of information and “buzz” dominate. This editorial approach has been established in France for about ten years, following its development in the United States.
Today, the “merchants of social death” — as Georges Dougueli, a journalist specializing in sub-Saharan Africa, points out — have a firm presence. “You just have to knock on their door, and they will ruin a competitor’s reputation, discredit a political opponent, or distort an election result, all while offering many other clandestine services no one will ever brag about,” he notes in an opinion piece for Jeune Afrique. In recent years, fake news factories have also sprung up on the Great Island. During election periods, disinformation is all the more problematic as it finds echo chambers across many sectors. Disinformation is a powerful tool wielded by certain political “activists,” serving vested interests to delegitimize and destabilize political opponents, and vice versa.
A True Scourge
Disinformation has always been part of the information and communication ecology in Madagascar, as in Africa. “The instantaneous nature of social networks has increased the frequency of meticulously crafted, intentionally false, and misleading information campaigns,” note Guillaume Soto-Mayor, Admire Mare, and Valdez Onanina for the media outlet Le Grand Continent. The scale of disinformation during the electoral period and the daily demonstrations by political actors highlight the urgent need to understand its origins, its instigators, and its profound consequences—as well as the importance of media like VaovaoCheck and those who strive to uncover truth from falsehood.
The deliberate or accidental spread of false information during election periods resembles a process of corruption. Indeed, its author(s) intend to harm a candidate or divert votes. It is a true scourge, even though the 2023 electoral process did not follow the usual path of a “genuine” election campaign with, on one side, three candidates campaigning and, on the other, a collective boycotting it. Precisely, VaovaoCheck has examined some of the claims made during this period.
Actions and Reactions
Thus, the editorial team focused on one of the “velirano” (promises) made by the elected president during an electoral rally in Ambositra: the construction of 4,200 schools throughout his term, between 2019 and 2023. After verification, it was confirmed that the figure of 4,200 mentioned by Andry Rajoelina actually referred to the construction of classrooms, not schools. During the electoral period, false alarm spreaders and certain media outlets favored the dissemination of viral emotion, sometimes rooted in widespread irrationality, such as the (false) information about the mobilization of the Antandroy community.
Disinformation was a powerful tool used by both camps to provoke actions or reactions to the detriment of social peace or simply common sense. In France, the 2012 presidential election saw an almost general introduction of “fact-checking” sections across all media, including the press, radio, and television. Nowadays, some journalists have the sole responsibility of exhaustively monitoring political statements and verifying their content as systematically as possible.
The low voter turnout rate was a subject of debate among supporters of the elected president, the opposition, and political analysts. The fact-checking media VaovaoCheck provided clarifications on this specific point. The CENI, by comparing the results of the first round of the 2023 presidential election to those of the second round of the 2018 presidential election, downplayed the weakness of the 2023 turnout. However, when comparing the results of the first rounds of both elections, the drop in participation is significant.
This kind of exercise is particularly useful during electoral periods and throughout public life. Civil society organizations, including fact-checkers, have the power to play a crucial role in the fight against disinformation by reinforcing truth and debunking false information.
Excerpts
[…] The deliberate or accidental spread of false information during election periods resembles a process of corruption.
[…] Disinformation has been a powerful tool used by both camps to provoke actions or reactions to the detriment of social peace or simply common sense.
