Antananarivo | Wednesday
MADAGASCAN President Didier Ratsiraka and his self-declared successor Marc Ravalomanana will meet “within the next 24 to 48 hours”, sources in the capital Antananarivo said on Tuesday.
The meeting was requested by the island nation’s armed forces which are under the command of the army chief of staff, General Ismail Mounibou, and the proposal was accepted by the two rivals.
Mounibou urged the Ravalomanana during a meeting to put an end to the standoff, arguing that the opposition leader held no real control over the country’s security forces, the source said.
Mounibou told the opposition leader that “the armed forces officers and the national police that he has rallied to his cause don’t have a single command or troop and don’t have access to any military material,” the source said.
Buoyed by massive public support in the capital, the opposition leader declared himself head of state last month and went on to form a parallel government.
Two members of that government “defence minister” Jules Mamizara and “prime minister” Jacques Sylla affirmed Mounibou’s claims to the capital’s private television network on Tuesday night.
Mamizara told the channel that he “did not control the army.”
Also on Tuesday, one Ravalomanana’s six “vice presidents” was appointed “interim president of the national assembly” by a group of Ravalomanana’s “deputies.”
Auguste Paraina’s first move as head of the rival assembly was to announce a special session on March 26 and 27 “so prime minister Jacques Sylla can present his governance and general policy program,” Paraina said.
Forty-eight of Ravalomanana’s 60 “deputies” appointed Paraina because the national assembly “is paralysed by the strike of its administrative personnel” and its president Ang Andrianarisoa is thus unable to govern, Paraina said.
Ratsiraka has rejected a proposed “reconciliation government” to end the bitter power struggle with Ravalomanana and has said a second round of presidential elections is the only solution.
He has argued that direct dialogue on a second round is the only way to solve the crisis prompted by Ravalomanana’s unwavering insistence that he defeated the president.
And he accepted the meeting with Ravalomanana only if his rival promises not to make a “false start, for the third time,” the source said.
Two previously-scheduled meetings have been cancelled.
In accepting the meeting, Ravalomanana told Mounibou that he was concerned for his security and the general told him that “proof existed that the army was not on his side,” the source said.
The army has been urging the two sides to consider talks since last week, when deputy chief of staff General Bruno Rajaonson saying the standoff must come to an end.
“The army has decided to remain silent and neutral and is still determined to encourage dialogue between the two camps,” he said, adding that it “opposed the existence of these two governments.”
On Tuesday, Ravalomanana cancelled the daily protests that have been held in the city centre after the opposition leader told workers to take up their jobs.
Many public services remained closed however, including the post office. – AFP
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