Madagascar – New meeting proposed

As reported in a previous post, the various parties in Madagascar appeared to have reached some sort of agreement as to how to manage the transition back to democracy. The process has since moved forward a little, but the situation is still very delicate.

While the Maputo accords established a framework for the transition to democracy, the devil, obviously, was in the detail and, in this case, the detail concerned the names of the people who were the transition process. Basically, the framework provided for a president during the transition, a PM, three Vice-PMs, as well as a number of other posts. There were four parties to the accords, notably those of Andry Rajoelina, who took power in the coup, and Marc Ravalomanana, who was ousted. The problem was that the various parties could not agree how the posts would be distributed.

Anyway, a few weeks ago some sort of agreement was reached: Rajoelina would remain president, Eugène Mangalaza from former president Didier Ratsiraka’s movement will be the PM, the Vice President will be from former president Albert Zafy’s group, and the head of Congress of Transition will be from Ravalomanana’s group.

The plan is for the four sides to meet in Addis Ababa on 3-5 November to finalise the agreement and sort out the remaining distribution of posts.

Anyway, the ‘agreement’ has caused two major problems. First, former (and still, in his eyes, current) president Marc Ravalomanana says that he will not accept any agreement that confirms Rajoelina as president, though this now seems to be the dominant position.

Second, Monja Roindefo, the prime minister appointed by Rajoelina after the coup, is extremely angry that he has been forced to step aside. He has challenged the decree that appointed Mangalaza as the new PM following the ‘agreement’ and has broken with Rajoelina. A reconciliation meeting has taken place, but the emergence of another actor with another grievance and with at least some support is a further complicating factor.

At this point, the transition still seems a long way away.

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