President Marc Ravalomanana of Madagascar, riding high on recent territorial gains and the absence of his arch rival, on Sunday dissolved his government, paving the way for an end to the worst crisis in the Indian Ocean island’s history.
The move, announced on national radio, is likely to lead to the formation of a transitional broad-based administration including supporters of former president Didier Ratsiraka, with whom Ravalomanana has been locked in a fierce power struggle since a contentious December election.
The battle has brought the country, already among the world’s poorest, to its knees, ravaging the economy and threatening to bring about a major humanitarian disaster.
Ravalomanana told AFP on Sunday that he accepted most of the main points to end the crisis drawn up earlier this month by presidents Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal and Omar Bongo of Gabon.
A cornerstone of this plan, which was left unsigned when Ravalomanana and Ratsiraka met in Dakar on June 9, was the formation of a reconciliation government.
Ratsiraka, who has refused to accept Ravalomanana’s officially declared victory and has set up a parallel government in the eastern port city of Toamasina, left Madagascar for France on Thursday.
The next day Ravalomanana’s military forces made easy work of taking key ports and areas previously in the hands of the former president. Ravalomanana’s offensive, launched late last month, seems also to have succeeded in its aim of breaking a crippling economic blockade imposed by Ratsiraka on the capital, Antananarivo.
Sunday’s brief radio and television announcement also said that Prime Minister Jacques Sylla had been reappointed and charged with forming a new government.
“We must work towards national reconciliation. Everyone should get involved,” Ravalomanana said earlier in the day.
When he formed his government in May, Ravalomanana ignored international pressure for an inclusive team, appointing just one person close to Ratsiraka, and even he had already resigned as defence minister.
Late Saturday, sources close to Wade in Dakar said Ravalomanana had written to Wade agreeing to the principle of an inclusive administration. To this effect, the sources said, Ravalomanana planned to name a prime minister, possibly the incumbent, and a cabinet, that would “appeal to all stakeholders, including supporters of the former president.”
In his letter, according to the Senegalese sources, Ravalomanana also unequivocally agreed to hold early legislative elections.
He further agreed to look into the idea of granting “amnesty” to Ratsiraka and his family. The former leader has stressed he had not fled Madagascar and intended to return.
Under the latest Dakar plan, three of five most important cabinet posts would be chosen by Ratsiraka, with Ravalomanana appointing the interior and finance ministers. Other ministries would be agreed by consensus, with the two leaders each allocating half the portfolios.
The plan also calls for a body, chaired by Ravalomanana, to be set up to steer the country through a transition phase. The Organisation of African Unity’s central organ, akin to the UN’s Security Council, is due to discuss the plan a summit in Addis Ababa on June 21.
Ravalomanana first appointed Sylla, a lawyer, as his prime minister in February, after unilaterally declaring himself president on the basis of the December poll and in defiance of an initial ruling that called for a second round run-off. After that ruling was reversed when the results were re-examined in May, Ravalomanana reappointed Sylla as his prime minister after being officially sworn in as president. – AFP