Andry Rajoelina, the president of Madagascar, declared on Wednesday that he would seek reelection in November.
At a lavish event staged in the largest stadium on the sizable Indian Ocean island, which is scheduled to hold the presidential election on November 9, Rajoelina made the news.
In 2009, following the overthrow of former president Marc Ravalomanana, he first came to power.
Rajoelina was voted back into office in 2018 after refraining from running in the 2013 election under pressure from the international community.
“Are you ready? I am decided” the 49-year-old leader declared in the country’s capital Antananarivo.
Sporting a white suit, he said he was ready to represent people “throughout Madagascar, and to be the president of all Malagasy people,”.
“The Constitution allows me to run for a second term” he said on a stage decorated with flags bearing his image and with giant screens which hosted evangelical music groups and popular Malagasy singers, before his speech.
At the Barea stadium, where 12 people died in a stampede at the end of August, Rajoelina spoke to hundreds of fans wearing the party’s orange and white colours. Rajoelina emphasised the infrastructure that had been put in place over the previous five years.
He highlighted the institutions he had established as president, calling himself a “builder president,” including jails, courts, and schools.
- French or Malagasy?
“Many things have been done to prevent me from moving forward but this encourages me to do more” Rajoelina said, promising victory.
In recent months, the president’s dual French citizenship has come under scrutiny.
At the end of June, the information was made public through media reports.
After becoming a French citizen in 2014, the president would no longer be a citizen of Madagascar under local law.
Without his Malagasy citizenship, he is unable to serve as president or run for office. The ruling party, however, vehemently contests this account of events.
The businessman and devout Catholic, who goes by the moniker “TGV” in allusion to his party’s name Tanora malaGasy Vonona (Young Malagasies Determined), entered politics in 2007.
He easily defeated the party of the then-president Ravalomanana that year to win the position of mayor of Antananarivo.
In 2009, he overthrew Ravalomanana with the tacit approval of the military. The coup was denounced by the world community.
The 73-year-old millionaire Ravalomanana, who gained his fortune in the agri-food sector, has still not accepted his removal and declared his candidate for president in July.
Storms can be extremely destructive in Madagascar. despite having an abundance of natural resources, is one of the poorest nations on the planet.
Of the 28 million people, about 80 percent survive on less than $1.92 per day.
