Madagascar names elite-heavy government after army ousts leader

ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (AFP) — Madagascar’s military ruler named on Tuesday a government replete with familiar faces from the island’s political elite, sidelining young protesters’ calls for a clean slate after President Andry Rajoelina’s ouster.

Angry over chronic power cuts and economic stagnation, the poverty-stricken Indian Ocean island’s “Gen Z” protesters sparked a mass movement for change, which led to Rajoelina’s flight after Colonel Michael Randrianirina mutinied and seized power.

But Randrianirina, who was sworn in as president on Oct. 17, announced on Tuesday that he had selected a 28-person cabinet, which includes several ex-ministers and Rajoelina’s former right-hand man, after consulting Madagascar’s main power-brokers.

“We will prosecute those guilty of corruption and recover the assets they have acquired through corrupt practices,” Randrianirina vowed in a speech from the presidential palace in Iavoloha.

Several key figures from the Rajoelina era made a comeback in the new cabinet, raising fears over whether the new government will heed the Gen Z movement’s demands.

The foreign affairs ministry has gone to Christine Razanamahasoa, who held the justice portfolio between 2009 and 2013 after Rajoelina took power in a military-backed coup.

She then served two stints as the National Assembly’s speaker, before being kicked out of Rajoelina’s party after falling out with the now deposed president.

The influential militia general Rene Lylison, currently governor of the northern Sofia region, meanwhile inherits the Land management and planning ministry.

Before falling from grace in the wake of an argument with Rajoelina, the gendarmerie officer served as the ex-leader’s enforcer, making a name for himself through a fierce crackdown on Madagascar’s cattle rustlers.

The anti-corruption brief however will largely fall to incoming justice minister Fanirisoa Ernaivo, a lawyer and former judge returning from exile from France.

Randrianirina has promised to hand power back to civilians after two years.

In his speech on Tuesday, the colonel vowed to make energy, health, tourism, security and the fight against corruption a priority of his time in office, giving his ministers two months to get results.

“You are here to serve the Malagasy people,” he said. “Do not betray them by doing what your predecessors did.”

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By Agence France-Presse