Politics of Madagascar - week 12 - Roselinde Vandepitte

Hi bloggers

We came to the last country of our journey, Madagascar. As Melisa said, all beautiful songs come to an end. Unfortunately it really is our last week of travelling together.

Madagascar has a lot of interesting thing to talk about such as the wonderful nature and the many unique animal, but what about its politics?

Fortunately there were leaflets in the hotel. There was a lot of information about what you could visit in Madagascar but also a little page about the politics of this country.

Madagascar seems to be a semi-presidential representative democratic republic (such a word!). There is no king but a President who is the head of the state and the Prime Minister is the head of the government.

First it was the French and later the British who had Madagascar under their control. It was on the 26^th of June, 1960 that Madagascar became independent after a violent struggle.  Madagascar’s first president was Philibert Tsiranana. He was elected but already resigned 2 month later because of a massive anti-government demonstration. Richard Ratsimandrava took power afterwards but was assassinated 6 days later. It was in June 1975 when there finally was a new government under Didier Ratsiraka. Now it is Omer Berziky who is the prime minister of Madagascar.

The next presidential and parliamentary elections will be held in May 2012. They were planned to be held in May 2011 but had been postponed to September 2011 and are now in May 2012.

This was all I could find in the leaflet about the politics but it was someone of the group we travelled with who knew something more about how the elections are held. The president is elected by direct universal suffrage for a 5-year term. The President appoints the Prime Minister and it is the prime minister and the council of ministers, which have to carry out the management of the government.

It seems that Madagascar has a very complicated past concerning politics. So enough about it!

We've had a great adventure but I’m also glad to go home now, so I can finally sleep in my own bed again without all the irritating insects of Africa!

Sleep tight, will miss you all!

-XOXO-

Roselinde

Sources: http://www.mapsofworld.com/madagascar/government-and-politics/madagascar-politics.html

http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Africa/Madagascar-POLITICS-GOVERNMENT-AND-TAXATION.html