PRESIDENT RAVALOMANANA DISMISSES PARLIAMENT, ELECTIONS TO BE HELD NEXT DECEMBER

MISNA 17.10.2002

Madagascar’s President Marc Ravalomanana dismissed the parliament last nigh at around midnight and announced that general elections would be held soon. The much awaited decision, responds to the promises made by the present Head of State to the international community at the end of the long political crisis, which for 7 months saw him in contrast with former president Didier Ratsiraka. The dismissal of the Malagasy assembly anticipates the end of the normal mandate by 8 months, which was to end in May 2003. The elections for the new parliament have been scheduled for next 15 December. The polls should give Ravalomanana the possibility of counting on a majority in the senate of which at the moment, at least formally, he does not have. The 150 present parliamentarians, in fact, are the expression of the 1998 vote, in which the AREMA was the winning party, political formation of the former head of state Ratsiraka. (BP)