20120722
AFP
Madagascar's rival leaders will meet in the Seychelles next week, a source close to the talks said Saturday, in a bid to resolve the country's three-year-old political crisis.

Exiled president Marc Ravalomanana and transitional strongman Andry Rajoelina will meet Wednesday, the source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"The one-on-one starts on the 25th (of July) and we are hoping to get an agreement then," said the source. "This might go into the morning of the 26th."

The rivals last month agreed on a meeting to solve the crisis that followed Rajoelina's 2009 power grab from the elected president, but until now no date had been set.

While the meeting will not be their first, it will be their first held in private since 2009.

Ravalomanana, who now lives in South Africa, was served with a summons Tuesday over a $23 million lawsuit filed by victims of the February 2009 unrest that led to his overthrow.

According to legal papers delivered to his Pretoria hotel, he is expected to appear at a South African court on August 1 for a hearing.

Ravalomanana has twice tried to return to Madagascar, but officials there have both times prevented him and his wife from entering the country.

He even faces a life jail term there, having been sentenced in absentia over the killing of demonstrators by his presidential guard during the protests that led to his downfall.

During that unrest, 36 people were killed and hundreds wounded.

With Ravalomanana ousted, Rajoelina seized power in an army-backed coup that provoked regional condemnation. He has so far failed to steer the vast Indian Ocean island-nation back to democracy.

A time frame for legislative and presidential elections is to be announced later this month to help the country end the three-year crisis.

Ravalomanana's return to Madagascar and his participation in any future election are two of the major stumbling blocks to be resolved.

But these points are non-negotiable so far as Ravalomanana's camp is concerned, said a source from his side who requested anonymity.

A vote passed by parliament earlier this month explicitly forbids convicted criminals for running for the presidency.

His supporters however say that this conviction, after a trial which he did not attend, had no legal standing.

One activist, Ernest Razafindraibe, president of the National Committee of Election Monitoring and Citizens Education (CNOE), has proposed one way around the problem.

"The political solution would be that neither one runs, at least for the next mandate, because, given the tensions, the campaign will be rough, it risks getting out of control and the loser could refuse to acknowledge defeat," he said.

Rajoelina is expected in the Seychelles on Monday; Ravalomanana a day later, which is when talks between the two sides will start before the one-on-one meeting Wednesday.

The 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) has already given the rival leaders a July 31 deadline to reach an agreement.

Failing that, the SADC has threatened to exclude from future talks any party seen as undermining moves towards political reforms.

Ravalomanana's assistant Olivier Andrianosa, contacted by AFP in South Africa, refused to make any comment.

Neither the administration in Madagascar nor officials in the Seychelles have responded to media reports on the meeting, though there had been no official denial either.