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Andry Rajoelina has secured a third term in an election marred by a low turnout and an opposition boycott.

Madagascar‘s President Andry Rajoelina has effectively secured a third term after the electoral body (CENI) said he had obtained the most votes in an election marked by low turnout and an opposition boycott.

Provisional results announced on Saturday by CENI at the end of tallying showed Rajoelina garnered 58.9 percent of the vote followed by Siteny Randrianasoloniaiko, a lawmaker, who got 14.4 percent. The country’s High Constitutional Court is mandated to announce final results within nine days after the poll body declares provisional results.

“The Malagasy people have chosen the path of continuity, serenity and stability,” Rajoelina, a 49-year-old entrepreneur and former DJ, said after the results were announced.

“I thank the Malagasy people who now refuse to choose the wrong path, who no longer accept to take the path of unrest. Democracy is exercised through elections and not in the streets or through unrest.”

But Randrianasoloniaiko told the AFP news agency on Saturday he had appealed to the country’s apex court to demand the cancellation of the vote result.

“I filed two requests to request the cancellation of the vote and the disqualification of Andry Rajoelina,” Randrianasoloniaiko told the agency, denouncing electoral fraud.

Opposition candidates had declared on Friday they would not accept the results.

“We cannot legitimise the results that will come out,” said Hajo Andrianainarivelo, who was among 10 of the 13 candidates initially cleared to run who told voters to boycott the poll.

He said the poll had been tainted by irregularities including intimidation of polling officials and use of public resources by the governing party, which has denied the claims.

‘Unfair’ conditions

The majority of the opposition, aligned in the so-called Collectif des 10  – a group of 10 candidates – boycotted the election. The group has led street protests in the capital Antananarivo almost every day in recent weeks, several of which were dispersed with tear gas and police arrested many participants and bystanders.

The United Nations human rights office said that Malagasy security forces had used “unnecessary and disproportionate force” against peaceful protesters.

Opposition supporters claimed Rajoelina should not have run because he acquired French nationality in 2014 – which they say automatically revokes his Malagasy one – and had created unfair election conditions.

Collectif des 10 later asked the poll body to postpone the election saying the state needed to first appoint independent officials on the electoral body. When CENI refused, they decided to ask voters to boycott the poll.

Subsequently, only three candidates campaigned. Roughly 46.4 percent of voters cast their ballots, according to CENI, with the opposition describing it as the lowest turnout in the country’s history.

Rajoelina first rose to power in the Indian Ocean island nation in a 2009 coup. He then stepped down after almost five years as leader of a transitional authority and then became president again after winning a 2018 election.

As the easternmost European Union member, Finland, historically neutral, pivots towards NATO in response to Russia’s Ukraine invasion, new geopolitical challenges arise: increased Russian espionage, cyberattacks and potential election interference, the Finnish government says.

Additionally, a surge of asylum seekers, allegedly directed by Russia, strains stability.

Amid these tensions, Finland’s $345m Israeli defence deal, which many see as conflicting with its stance on Gaza, sparks debate.

Discussing these complex issues, Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen talks to Al Jazeera.

Rescue efforts to save workers trapped since November 12 slowed after damage to a digging machine.

Indian rescuers have brought in a new manual digging machine to open a vertical shaft to free 41 workers trapped inside a collapsed road tunnel for two weeks, after efforts through another route hit snags just metres from reaching the men.

A heavy drill brought in to break through nearly 60 metres (about 200 feet) of debris was damaged on Friday while being pulled out of the 47-metre (154-foot) pipe inserted to bring out the trapped workers. It had to be pulled out entirely, government officials said on Saturday, adding the last 10-15 metres (33-49 feet) would have to be broken with hand-held power tools.

The men, construction workers from some of India’s poorest states, have been stuck in the 4.5km (three-mile) tunnel being built in Uttarakhand state in northern India since it caved in early on November 12. Authorities have said they are safe, with access to light, oxygen, food, water and medicines.

Pushkar Singh Dhami, chief minister of Uttarakhand state, said the damaged machine would be taken out by Sunday morning, allowing manual drilling to start.

Arnold Dix, president of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, who is assisting the rescue, told reporters at the tunnel site that although the machine is broken, he was not giving up hope as there were “many ways” to reach the men.

“I am confident that the 41 men are coming home.”

Rescue efforts have been painfully slow, complicated by falling debris as well as repeated breakdowns of crucial heavy drilling machines, with the air force having to twice airlift new kit.

Ambulances are on standby and a field hospital has been prepared to receive the men when they are rescued.

‘Challenging Himalayan terrain’

AFP reporters at the tunnel site on Saturday reported seeing a heavy earth digger being taken up the specially cut track to the top of a forested hill above the tunnel to start a risky vertical shaft.

Officials estimate the proposed vertical shaft would need to be 89 metres (291 feet) deep, a complex dig above the men in an area that has already suffered a collapse.

Work has also begun digging from the far side of the road tunnel, a much longer third route estimated to be approximately 480 metres (1,575 feet).

Dhami, the state’s top elected official, said the authorities and teams of international experts were working on all options.

“We will soon be successful in evacuating our labour brothers safely,” he said in a post on social media.

Rescue teams have stretchers fitted with wheels ready to pull the exhausted men through 57 metres (187 feet) of pipe, if it can be driven through the final section of rubble blocking their escape.

The workers were seen alive for the first time on Tuesday, peering into the lens of an endoscopic camera sent by rescuers down a thin pipe through which air, food, water and electricity are being delivered.

Since Wednesday, officials have repeatedly said they were optimistic of a breakthrough within hours, but a government statement has also noted that any timeline is “subject to change due to technical glitches, the challenging Himalayan terrain, and unforeseen emergencies”.

Amid the truce, some Gaza Palestinians returned to their houses in north and central Gaza – only to find rubble and debris.

Some Palestinians returned to their homes in the central and northern parts of the Gaza Strip after a four-day truce came into effect.

But for many, only rubble waited where their homes once stood.

Al Jazeera’s Hisham Zaqout visited the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza on Saturday, where he spoke to several Palestinians who used the pause in fighting to return to their neighbourhoods – only to find utter destruction.

“Our home is destroyed, nothing remains standing. And most of the ducks and chickens were eaten by hungry street dogs,” an elderly woman said.

“This is not a war; it is a genocide,” she added. “It’s unprecedented crimes.”

Zaqout said many residents of the Bureij camp had been forced to head to the Nuseirat refugee camp, further west, due to the constant, intense shelling by the Israeli military since last month.

Upon returning, they found their homes levelled to the ground and some of the dead buried under the debris. The elderly woman said she used to “come every now and then, despite the ruthless shelling”.

“It was very dangerous, but I have to come and check on my chicken livestock. I am not afraid. If I am destined to be killed, I will die. My life is not in the hands of the Zionists.”

‘I hope the ceasefire can last forever’

Another resident of the camp talked about the unimaginable destruction that awaited him upon his return.

“Honestly, I never imagined the scale of destruction; not even 1 percent of it,” the young man said.

“My home was shelled. It suffered damages and is not fit to live in any more. It must be rebuilt all over again,” he added.

When asked how he could stay there again, he said he would prefer to live in a house without walls “than get humiliated in overcrowded UN schools”.

“We drink seawater and pretend it is freshwater. What can we do?”

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been forced to take shelter inside United Nation-run schools since the start of the war. But they have not proven safe either, and many Israeli attacks targeting them have left dozens of civilians dead.

The truce, which runs until Monday, involves the release of dozens of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel in exchange for Israelis and other nationals held in Gaza.

It may be extended, the United States and others have signalled, but Israel and its Western allies have not supported a ceasefire in the besieged strip.

Another Gaza resident speaking to Al Jazeera said they “wish for eternal peace, not just four days, because people have gone through too many pains and are still suffering”.

“I hope the ceasefire can last forever. Why? Because we are tired, we are tired of a life like this.”

Another displaced Palestinian, a resident of Khuza’a in southern Gaza, said the scale of destruction left them shocked after returning home to the north.

“The destruction is very large, tears come down alone. God suffices us and that’s all I can say.”

The truce continues to hold with more captive and prisoner swaps expected, as Gaza receives limited but much-needed humanitarian aid.

Here is what to know about the situation on Saturday, November 25, 2023:

Hostage and prisoner swap

• Hamas fighters are set to release a second group of captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, according to officials.
• Egypt says it has received a list from Hamas of 14 captives to be released from Gaza.
• Forty-two Palestinians held in Israeli jails were set to be released, including 18 women and 24 teenage boys.
• Hamas has already released 13 Israeli women and children, including some dual citizens.
• The group has also freed 10 Thais and one Filipino citizen.
• Thirty-nine Palestinian women and children were released from Palestinian prisons.
• The Israeli military says the released captives will go through a medical assessment in Israel before being reunited with their families.

Truce

• Four-day truce largely holds in Gaza into its second day with only a small plume of grey smoke reported over northern Gaza, the focus of Israeli attacks.
• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says for every additional 10 captives who are released, there will be an additional day of truce.
• Under the truce deal, Hamas is expected to free a total of 50 captives in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

Humanitarian aid

• A UN convoy has reached two facilities of the international organistion’s refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) sheltering internally displaced people in the north, where it delivered flour.
• Four tankers of fuel and another four containing cooking gas have entered the southern Gaza Strip via the Rafah crossing.
• The Palestine Red Crescent Society says 196 trucks carrying food, water and medical supplies have entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing, becoming the biggest such aid delivery since the conflict started.
• According to the Israeli defence ministry body that handles Palestinian civil affairs, 200 aid trucks in total have entered Gaza after the truce.

Other developments

• An Israeli-owned cargo ship has been damaged in a suspected drone attack by Iran in the Indian Ocean, according to a US defence official.
• The Israeli army says it has shot down a surface-to-air missile fired from Lebanon and targeting an Israeli drone.