Seven months before the presidential election, the Malagasy government has banned public political gatherings in the name of security. But the president and the government are not affected by this ban.
It was March 31. On national public television, the Malagasy Minister of the Interior made an important announcement: he explained that it would henceforth be forbidden to hold demonstrations of a political nature in public places. In other words, political meetings can be held in closed places, but there is no question of having a meeting, at the risk of disturbing public order.
If, according to the Minister, “this measure applies to all political parties and to all parliamentarians”, this is not the case for members of the executive. As the presidential election looms in seven months, the Malagasy power is therefore in the process of setting up unbalanced rules of the game. If the decision is not reversed, the campaign will quickly turn in favor of President Andry Rajoelina.
For the Minister of the Interior, however, there is no harm in that this decision does not concern the executive, which, in his own words, "needs to meet and listen to the population". But undeniably, this is a violation of public freedoms. The tone is hardening in Madagascar, where the power in place attacked - an extremely rare occurrence - a newspaper critical of it.
“Today we are heading towards dictatorship”
Is Andry Rajoelina tightening the screws and putting an end to individual freedoms? It looks like it… and worries even Western chancelleries. This Tuesday, eight embassies, including the delegation of the European Union, the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom, reminded the Madagascan president that "the possibility of freely expressing one's political opinions is one of the of democracy”.
For the international community, this right "is enshrined in the Constitution of Madagascar, but also in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which was also signed by Madagascar in 71, so the Minister's announcement, which prohibits demonstrations of a political nature in public places goes against these two texts".
Foreign diplomats reproach, among other things, that it is set up "an exception" for the members of the government and judge this decision "discriminatory". They fear that “the political climate with the approach of the presidential election” will become a little more tense.
On the side of the opposition also, the concern is in order. For Hajo Andrianainarivelo, former minister of Rajoelina, “it is a denial of democracy. (…) The Constitution is no longer respected. How can you have confidence in future deadlines if the government is doing everything right now to prevent the voice of political parties and civil society from being heard? What interests this regime is to stay in place. Nothing stops them. And today we are moving towards dictatorship. It is extremely serious”.