Provisional figures show that Marc Ravalomana (photo), Madagascar?s incumbent president has been re-elected with 54. 8 % of the votes. Ravalomanana is said to have taken 2,430,489 of the votes cast in the first round of the presidential poll across the large Indian Ocean island on December 3, according to the results published by the interior ministry.

The winner will be officially proclaimed by the High Constitutional Court (HCC), which has 20 days from receiving the final electoral papers to consider any challenges to the outcome from the 13 other candidates. To be elected outright in the first round, a candidate must take more than 50 percent of the votes cast.

The former speaker of the national assembly Jean Lahiniriko was in second place with 11.68 percent, followed by Roland Ratsiraka, nephew of ex-president Didier Ratsiraka, whom Ravalomanana beat in the last election five years ago.

Ratsiraka, who took 10.9 percent and saw businessman Herizo Razafimahaleo into fourth place with 9.05 percent, has said he will contest the figures on the grounds of irregularities.

?We are preparing a petition on the results... in all the provinces, but I hardly think the HCC will respond (favourably),? Ratsiraka said on Saturday, while several other candidates have said they will lodge procedural complaints.

Lahiniriko?s campaign director Michel Saina claimed the reported results were false and alleged that electoral ?fraud? had taken place.Ravalomanana ?has not won. He has robbed (the election),? Saina told reporters

However, Ravalomanana?s TIM party hailed the vote as fair.

?We set many aims, including transparency and swiftness to publish the results to avoid tricks,? party spokesman Razoarimihaja Solofonantenaina told reporters on Sunday evening. ?I congratulate our president,? he added.

International election monitors present on the island also said they were satisfied overall.

The interior ministry said the turnout in last Sunday?s election was 61.45 percent of a potential electorate of a little more than 7.3 million voters.

The court has not yet received all the ballot papers from certain isolated parts of the vast island, but is due to confirm the final results by December 25.

?Some of his charisma worn off?

Ravalomanana, a businessman, was widely expected to win, but he has lost some of the charisma that saw him swept to power in 2002.

He had taken on Ratsiraka in the December 2001 election as the popular mayor of Antananarivo and rode a wave of public enthusiasm to become president after a dangerous seven-month standoff against the ?Red Admiral?, who had run the country for three decades, initially as a Marxist military ruler.

Both men claimed to have won that election and the island was split, with rival governments. Clashes between supporters of the two sides claimed dozens of lives and roused fears of military intervention and civil war. Ratsiraka finally left in July 2002.

Some of Ravalomanana?s rivals in this year?s election are former close aides who have accused him of distancing himself from the people and failing to make good on his economic pledges.

More than 70 percent of the population of Madagascar lives below the poverty threshold established by international institutions.