Madagascar - Deal reached - but without Rajoelina

December 14th, 2009

 

 

Maputo (Mozambique) — Three former presidents of Madagascar agreed in Maputo on Tuesday on the share-out of ministerial posts in a transitional government - but such a government seems impossible to set up for as long as the man who actually holds power in Antananarivo, Andry Rajoelina, boycotts negotiations.

The negotiations ran from Friday to Tuesday and involved the democratically elected president whom Rajoelina toppled in March, Marc Ravolamanana, and his two predecessors, Didier Ratsiraka and Albert Zafy.

At previous rounds of talks, held in Maputo and in Addis Ababa, it had been agreed that each of the four Madagascan factions would appoint six ministers in the transitional government. But Rajoelina declared that he was not attending the follow-up meeting, and that it should have been held in Madagascar anyway.

But the meeting went ahead, without Rajoelina, and under the aegis of the international mediation team led by former Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano.

Late on Tuesday, the three former Presidents issued a resolution saying that they had reached agreement on the Ministerial positions. The agreement gives Ravalomanana the ministries of foreign affairs, trade, agriculture, transport, higher education and decentralization.

Ratsiraka's group was allocated the ministries of finance, energy, public works, labour and the civil service, health, and posts and telecommunications. Albert Zafy will appoint the minister of the interior, the environment, mining and hydrocarbons, education, tourism and fisheries.

The three gave Rajoelina's faction the ministries of the armed forces, justice, industry, youth and recreation, livestock and population and social questions. In addition, Rajoelina will be allowed to appoint a state secretary for technical and professional education, and a state secretary for the police.

Under the previous agreements reached in Maputo and Addis Ababa, there should be a Higher Transitional Council, paving the way for elections next year. The three leaders each appointed 13 members to this body, which will be chaired by Zafy. They called for all the institutions agreed for the transitional period to start work at once, with the exceptions of the Supreme Transitional Court and the Independent National Electoral Commission.

The absent Rajoelina clearly has no sense of irony, since he immediately accused his three rivals of staging a coup. Yet the three had merely held talks in Maputo, whereas he in March had mobilized his allies in the army to overthrow a democratically elected president.

A singularly intransigent statement from Rajoelina's office also accused Ravalomana, Ratsiraka and Zafy of "high treason" and "an attack on national sovereignty".

So the chances of setting up the transitional institutions in the near future look remote. But it is the three ex-presidents who hold the moral high ground, and the power-sharing deal that Chissano has brokered enjoys the support of the entire international community. No country on the planet recognises the legitimacy of Rajoelina's regime, and the sanctions against Madagascar will remain until he agrees to implement the Maputo agreements.

 

source.Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Mozambique) - December 10, 2009.