Madagascar said yesterday it was still hunting a renegade general whose botched coup attempt at the weekend triggered a shootout two weeks before presidential elections on the Indian Ocean island. One soldier died in Saturday’s firefight.

Dozens of troops were deployed on Sunday outside the home of General Andrianafidisoa (photo), who remained at large three days after he announced he was setting up an interim military regime. “It is very difficult because he is very mobile,” said Lucien Victor Razakanirina, secretary of state for public security, describing the search. “We are not giving up,” he told Reuters. Andrianafidisoa, popularly known as Fidy, told Reuters by telephone at the weekend he was not in hiding but did not give his location. Barred from running in the December 3 election for failing to pay a $11,400 deposit, the general once supported current President Marc Ravalomanana but later turned against him. Many in Madagascar hope the polls will not lead to a repeat, or worse, of a disputed December 2001 result that led to an eight-month political crisis. Madagascar, the world’s fourth biggest island and its largest vanilla producer, is also one of the poorest countries despite its natural resources.