Counting the votes in Ankeniheny (a town in Arivonimamo)

Politics - Madagascar's Recent Election

News may have trickled back to America that there was recently an election here in Madagascar.  Though Madagascar is just the tiniest little blip on America’s diplomatic radar and the country has about as much influence in the international community as Sarah Palin does in the Obama administration, in this corner of the world, in this part of town, it was a big deal.

I should actually clarify that, it was sort of a big deal, but I’ll go into that more later on.  First, the CliffNotes version of Malagasy political history since independence:

In 1960 Madagascar gains its independence from France and Philbert Tsiranana becomes President of Madagascar’s First Republic (they had French overlords for a long time so they do the multiple republics thing). The Malagasy people had given independence a shot back in 1947 when they attempted to rise up against their French colonial masters but France, fresh from getting licked by the biggest bully of them all, Nazi Germany, stroked its wounded ego by kicking the bejesus out of the Malagasy people. On June 26^th 1960, when independence finally was granted Mr. Tsiranana was elected and was in power for a full twelve years. He was considered by many however to be a stooge for the French government and be beholden to the will of France.

In 1972, tensions had mounted and though Mr. Tsiranana was declared the victor in another round of elections, popular protests percolated to the point that his administration was deposed and power handed to his successor.  This changing of the guard failed to appease the public and demonstrations continued. The turmoil persisted until 1975 and the interim period witnessed the deposition of yet another leader, the assassination of a President and rule by a military directorate.  A new government was finally formed and the crisis was ended when Didier Ratsiraka came to power.

Now Ratsiraka is an important name to remember because he became a pivotal figure in Madagascar’s political history, ruling for nearly twenty years, though not consecutively.  Since this is a brief over-view of the political goings-on in Madagascar I won’t delve too much into the machinations of Ratsiraka’s regime but it is important to know that Ratsiraka’s rule was characterized as Madagascar’s revolutionary socialist period.  In response to deteriorating socio-economic conditions towards to the end of 1980’s Ratsiraka began to institute a number of economic and political reforms, not unlike Gorbachev was attempting in the Soviet Union, and not surprisingly the reforms had similar effects in both locations. 

After a protracted period of power jostling, elections were held in 1993 during which the opposition, led by professor Albert Zafy (I imagine this is probably the shortest Malagasy name ever), took power.  Mr. Zafy ruled for 3 years, ending with his impeachment, was succeeded by a short interim government, and elections were held once again in 1997 to return Ratsiraka to his familiar role as head of state. 

Enter Ravalomanana.  A man of Merina descent, the central highlands tribe that unified the island, Marc Ravalomanana boasted that home-spun American dream-esque backstory that would make David Plouffe salivate.  Purportedly Mr. Ravalomanana began by peddling around his town as a young man selling yogurt off the back of his bike and with a little ingenuity and elbow-grease transformed himself into the dairy mogul of Madagascar whose dairy dynasty made him one of the richest men in Madagascar.  This power was leveraged into political clout and he made a run at the Presidency in the 2001 election cycle against Ratsiraka. 

The results were contested and the ensuing struggle eventually vaulted Ravalomanana to the Presidency in 2002 and sent Ratsiraka fleeing into exile.  It should be noted that the struggle was violent and turbulent enough that Peace Corps suspended operations and pulled all of their volunteers out of the country (we came back obviously)

Ravalomanana is considered by many to be a friend of the Americans.  One important gesture he made was making English one of the official languages of Madagascar, but trust me, someone forgot to clue in the Malagasy people because as far as I can tell that official decree has yet to translate into English language competency for the majority of the population. That aside, he instituted a number of important economic and political reforms and could boast 5% annualized GDP growth during his time in office.  In fact, during the Ravalomanana years there was buzz of Madagascar being a model for development in Africa.  It is important to note however that the coastal/highlands socio-political divide was still a very large part of the political fabric at the time and many coastal ethnic groups had mixed feelings towards Mr. Ravalomanana.  Amongst their grievances were alleged corruption, racism, and exploitation by Ravalomanana’s Merina-dominated government. 

Whatever the case may have been, tensions escalated once again. Ravalomanana was deposed in a 2009 military coup which installed former disc jockey and mayor of Antananarivo, Andry Rajoelina, as head of the High Transitional Authority and sent Ravalomanana into exile in South Africa.  I should mention that this coup also sent Peace Corps packing once again (and once again we came back shortly after).

This was the situation when I arrived in Madagascar in March of 2012.  Madagascar was 3 years deep into the political crisis. Foreign aid, which had previously comprised more than 40% of the government’s budget, had been cut off and the Malagasy economy had stagnated.  As I mentioned previously, we did have an election here so I sort of spoiled the ending, Madagascar eventually got itself out of political limbo.  However, the two years that I served here as a Peace Corps Volunteer were set against the backdrop of the final two years of the crisis and were some of the most desperate years in Madagascar’s history, with more than 90% of the population living below the poverty line on less than $2 a day.

During Madagascar’s nearly 5 year political crisis a number of provisional election dates were batted around, with schedules and terms negotiated, decided upon and invariably delayed. The crisis had its share flashpoints and drama as well.  In fact, one particularly tense standoff occurred right as my Peace Corps cohort was flying into country. Mr. Ravalomanana had chartered a plane and attempted to return to Madagascar from exile, crossing the Mozambique Channel right around the same time as I was, only to be informed that if his plane were to land he would be arrested immediately.  Since Ravalomanana was barred from returning to Madagascar and Rajoelina, the head of the transitional government, was barred from running, the presidential election battle between these two titans of Malagasy politics had to be fought through proxy candidates.  There were a number of false starts including Ravalomanana’s wife sneaking back into Madagascar under the pretense of visiting her ailing mother only to declare her candidacy for President, Ratsiraka returning from exile to stake his claim as a candidate and Rajoelina flirting with the idea of saying to hell with the law and running for President anyway.  All three were emphatically rejected by the international community as well as Madagascar’s special election court, and when the field of a whopping 33 candidates was officially codified, those three names were left off the list.

The two most prominent candidates ended up being Hery Rajaonarimampianina, the Finance Minister during the transitional government who became the official candidate of Rajoelina’s team, and Dr. Jean Louis Robinson a former Minister of Health in Ravalomanana’s administration who was chosen to represent Ravalomanana’s party.  Now as I alluded to earlier, Madagascar has its own version of the red state/blue state divide, but based upon ethnicity and geography, more so than ideology.  Here in Madagascar the division is predominately between the coastal tribes and the Merina ethnic group, located in the central highlands.  Much of the animosity stems from a history of tribal wars that culminated in the Merina king Andrianapoinimerina defeating the Sakalava kingdom and unifying the island.  To this day the majority of coastal tribes allege that they continue to be slighted by the Merina and that during the rule of Ravalomanana a number of reforms and infrastructure changes were made to benefit the Merina populations in the central highlands region at the expense of the coastal people.  Due to the fact that Robinson was in the Ravalomanana camp and Rajaonarimampianina was attached to Rajoelina, another Merina administration, many on the coast felt disenfranchised and generally apathetic about the whole electoral process.  In fact, back in October when I was in the North of the island in the Antsiranana region I asked a few people about their impressions of the political situation and the upcoming election. Most responded that all of that political stuff was just Merina business and it didn’t really concern them up North.            

Consequently, when the final Election Day arrived voter turn-out was a modest 4 million roughly out of a country of 22 million.  Coastal apathy likely contributed to the depressed turn-out but it is also important to consider that further out in the rural areas of Madagascar, which constitutes much of the country, people are living at a very basic subsistence level and state authority is virtually non-existent.  It would have been very difficult to convince a poor, illiterate farmer to disrupt his daily life to participate in a process that is of no tangible consequence to him.

There was however the nearly 4 million individuals who did cast votes and in what has been verified as a free and fair election by the international community Madagascar elected Hery Rajaonarimampianina with 53% of the vote to be the new President.  This was a historic moment for Madagascar, a nation that has been disrupted by coups and assassinations and which has been plagued by systemic corruption in its brief history of political independence.  This election, this stable and democratic election, could be a pivotal moment for the Malagasy people who have, despite the many challenges yet to be overcome, made a strong showing of political self-determination, just over 50 years after their country shook off the yoke of French colonial subjugation. 

With the results officially declared an inauguration ceremony was held for Rajaonarimampianina on a sunny Saturday afternoon at the Mahamasina stadium in the center of the capital city Antananarivo.  Looking poised and Presidential, Rajaonarimampianina approached the podium to give his first speech as the President of Madagascar.  Tragically what came out was a nearly verbatim recitation of Nicholas Sarkozy’s inaugural address when he was elected as the President of France in 2007. 

It turns out Madagascar may still have a ways to go. 

Until next time,

Veloma.