A game of musical chairs with new faces appearing, former outcasts returning to the dance and departures. Wednesday, March 16, in the afternoon, the Malagasy President Andry Rajoelina carried out a cabinet reshuffle, the fifth in three years. In the end, no major upheaval: the Head of State retains his close guard and his Prime Minister.
With our correspondent in Antananarivo, Sarah Tetaud
Five new ministers are entering the government, two are changing portfolios, two others are making a comeback after being ousted during a reshuffle. Seven, finally, were thanked.
However, at the head of the strategic ministries – Finance, Defence, Public Security, Communication – the President of the Republic has opted for continuity. Only the Minister of the Interior, Pierre Houlder, had to give way to the Governor of Sava, Tokely Justin, to recover the portfolio of Regional Planning and Land Services, left vacant following the announcement of the departure of Haja Andranainarivelo.
In justice, the resigning minister Herilaza Imbiki (following suspicions of corruption) was replaced by the magistrate François Rakotozafy. It was he who assumed the presidency of the Special Electoral Court in 2013 at the end of the Transition.
The surprise may come from the reinstatement of Richard Randrimandrato, ex-finance minister, and Olivier Rakotomalala, ex-water minister, after being excluded from the government for seven months. The first in Foreign Affairs, the other takes over Water.
” There will be no room for error », had warned last August Andry Rajoelina. However, despite tensions, outbursts and blunders, the main ministers who have been talked about in recent weeks seem to have benefited from the leniency of the Head of State. Starting with Tinoka Roberto, former Minister of Transport who distinguished himself by announcing the ban on laptops and rolling suitcases in the cabin. He recovers the Ministry of Sports. Its close proximity to the inhabitants of the south-east of the island, less than two years before the presidential election, is probably not for nothing.