English.news.cn
ANTANANARIVO, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- Results of the first round of presidential election held in Madagascar on Oct. 25 will be announced on Friday, according to the electoral commission of the Indian Ocean Island country.
The independent national election commission (CENIT) will publish the results at 3 p.m. (0000 GMT), it announced Thursday.
CENIT President Atallah Beatrice told Xinhua on telephone that the last package from remote districts arrived Wednesday night and her institution will end the counting on Thursday.
"We finished our work earlier because the law gives us ten days after the receipt of the latest package to announce the results but we finish it only 24 hours after," Atallah said proudly.
The votes already accounted indicated that Jean Louis Robinson took the lead with 21.44 percent, followed by Hery Rajaonarimampianina, who garnered 15.75 percent.
According to law, if none of the 33 candidates has an outright win, the two leading candidates will enter a run-off set for Dec. 20.
More than 7.8 million voters were registered to go to the 20, 001 polling stations throughout Madagascar during the first round.
The results to be announced by CENIT have to be submitted to the Special Electoral Court (CES), which is in power to announce the final outcome of the first round.
Editor: Yang Yi