Madagascar – Still SP?

It is always difficult to know in these situations, but it is unclear whether, constitutionally, Madagascar remains semi-presidential. To the best of my knowledge, the Constitution has not been formally suspended. However, as reported in the last post, President Ravalomanana’s last act in office was to sign power over to a military directory. Jeune Afrique reports that, soon after, the officers in the military directory were arrested by soldiers loyal to Rajoelina and taken to an army barracks. Later that evening they declared that they refused to assume power and that they had signed a decree that gave Rajoelina power to govern the transition process. Despite the fact that the Constitution states that the president has to be at least 40 years of age, and Rajoelina is 34, reports say that the High Constitutional Council ratified the decree on Wednesday morning. No doubt the situation will become clear in time, but, at the moment, there seem to be some constitutional ambiguities to say the least.

For his part, Rajoelina has stated that he will ensure elections within two years and that a new Constitution – for a Fourth Republic – will be drawn up. Despite the protestations of Rajoelina and his supporters, it is difficult to see how the events of recent days amount to anything other than a coup, though clearly President Ravalomanana failed to mobilise a great deal of support behind him.

Topmada.com is a really useful site that has frequent updates on events as they unfold.

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