Marc Ravalomanana is a Malagasy politician who served as the sixth President of Madagascar from 2002 to 2009. Born into a farming Merina family in Imerinkasinina, near the capital city of Antananarivo, Ravalomanana first rose to prominence as the founder and CEO of the vast dairy conglomerate TIKO, later launching successful wholesaler MAGRO and several additional companies.
Madagascar was once divided into six autonomous provinces :
- Antananarivo Province
- Antsiranana Province
- Fianarantsoa Province
- Mahajanga Province
- Toamasina Province
- Toliara Province
Albert Zafy was a Malagasy politician and educator who served as the fourth President of Madagascar from 1993 to 1996. In 1988, he founded the National Union for Democracy and Development (UNDD).
Didier Ignace Ratsiraka was a Malagasy politician and naval officer who was the third President of Madagascar from 1975 to 1993 and the fifth from 1997 to 2002. At the time of his death, he was the longest-serving President of Madagascar.
Presidential elections were held in Madagascar on 3 December 2006. President Marc Ravalomanana, in office since he prevailed in a dispute over election results in 2002, ran for re-election. On 9 December, Ravalomanana was declared to have won in the first round with 55% of the vote.
Pierrot Jocelyn Rajaonarivelo is a Malagasy politician who served in the government of Madagascar as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2011 to 2013. He previously served as Deputy Prime Minister from 1997 to 2002, under President Didier Ratsiraka, and he was also National Secretary of the AREMA party at that time. He went into exile when Ratsiraka was ousted in 2002, and he was subsequently convicted of abuse of office in absentia. He was seen by many as the main potential challenger to President Marc Ravalomanana in the December 2006 presidential election; however, he was barred from standing.
The Malagasy Republic was a state situated in Southeast Africa on the island of Madagascar. It was established in 1958 as an autonomous republic within the newly created French Community, became fully independent in 1960, and existed until the proclamation of the Democratic Republic of Madagascar in 1975.
Parliamentary elections were held in Madagascar on 23 September 2007, with the vote to be repeated in two constituencies on 14 November 2007. 637 candidates contested the election, in which the 127 seats in the National Assembly were at stake.
Monja Jaona was a Malagasy politician and early nationalist who significantly drove political events on the island during his lifetime. He was a member of Jiny, a militant nationalist group formed in southern Madagascar in the 1940s that sided with MDRM during the ultimately unsuccessful Malagasy Uprising of 1947 against French rule. The colonial government imprisoned him from 1946 to 1950 for his affiliation with Jiny. He formed the Madagascar for the Malagasy (MONIMA) party in 1958 and successfully campaigned for the seat of mayor in Toliara, a position he held from 1959 to 1961. He came to view president Philibert Tsiranana and his Social Democratic Party (PSD) supporters as unduly favorable to continued French interests on the island after independence in 1960. Jaona instigated the 1971–72 rotaka farmer and student protests that successfully forced Tsiranana's resignation.
The Democratic Republic of Madagascar was a socialist state that existed on the island of Madagascar from 1975 to 1992.
General elections were held in Madagascar on 20 December 2013, following a first round of presidential elections on 25 October. The presidential elections in December were a runoff between Jean Louis Robinson and Hery Rajaonarimampianina, the top two candidates to emerge from the first round of voting in October. The official results of the second round were announced on 7 January 2014 with Rajaonarimampianina proclaimed the victor with nearly 54% of the vote.
Honoré N. Razafindramiandra was a Malagasy politician. Born in Ampitatafika, Antanifotsy, he was an activist of the Vital Forces Committee known as Commité des Forces Vives. He served as Vice-President of the Forces Vives Committee in 1991 and as Vice-President of the High State Authority under the Transitional Government until 1993. Founder of the Political party Accord and Director and founder of two National weekly newspapers Ala-Voly and Confidences au Sommet. Honoré N. Razafindramiandra was an Alma mater of Institut d'études politiques de Paris and graduated from the Public Service Division in 1965. He was awarded the National Order of the Legion of Honour. He served as Minister of Culture, Communications and Recreation of the Republic of Madagascar until his death on April 29, 1996.
The Third Republic of Madagascar (officially called the Republic of Madagascar refers to the 18-year-long period in Malagasy history after the dissolution of the socialist regime in 1992.
Paul Bert Rahasimanana, better known as Rossy, is a Malagasy singer and songwriter, generally considered the most popular Malagasy artist of the 1990s. Beginning his musical career as an accordionist and singer within a traditional hira gasy musical troupe, Rossy innovated a fusion of hira gasy instrumentation and vocal style with contemporary rock, funk and folk sounds to create a uniquely Malagasy genre of contemporary popular music. Rossy actively promoted former president Didier Ratsiraka through concert performances throughout his presidency and served within the Ministry of Culture to promote artists' rights and copyright law. When Ratsiraka fell into disfavor following the contentious 2001 Malagasy presidential elections, Rossy went into self-imposed exile in France. He returned to the island to give concerts beginning in 2008 and enjoyed enormous popularity despite six years of absence, setting an unbroken record of 35,000 tickets sold for a performance given that year. His compositions and style are frequently associated with the Ratsiraka socialist period and commonly evoke a sense of nostalgia among Malagasy fans.
Hery Martial Rajaonarimampianina Rakotoarimanana is a Malagasy politician who served as the seventh President of Madagascar from 2014 to 2018, resigning to run for re-election.
The Parti des déshérités de Madagascar was a political party active in Madagascar from June 1946 until the independence of the First Republic (1960–1972). It was formed in reaction to the establishment and rapid political success of the Mouvement démocratique de la rénovation malgache (MDRM) political party, formed by Merina elites on a platform of independence from France. While nationalist parties, including the MDRM, enjoyed broad support across various ethnic communities, PADESM focused on empowering and ensuring fair governance for coastal people. These coastal communities had a history of subjugation by the Merina group and were concerned that the MDRM might restore Merina political dominance after independence.
Marie Gisèle Aimée Rabesahala was a Malagasy politician and activist who was the first woman to hold a ministerial position in the government of Madagascar. She entered politics at the age of 17, campaigning on behalf of political prisoners, and becoming Madagascar's first woman municipal councilor, before becoming the first Malagasy woman to establish and lead a political party. She was a committed Marxist and co-founded the communist Congress Party for the Independence of Madagascar, which took power in 1975. In 1977, she became Madagascar's first female minister, responsible for promoting revolutionary art and culture, but lost her job in 1991 when her ministry was abolished in the course of Madagascar's return to multi-party democracy. She remained an active political campaigner and journalist until her death in 2011.
Céline Marthe Ratsiraka is a Malagasy politician, political figure, and widow of former President Didier Ratsiraka. Ratsiraka is the longest tenured First Lady of Madagascar in the country's history, having held the position from 1975 to 1993 and from 1997 until 2002. She was an influential figure within the ruling Association for the Rebirth of Madagascar (AREMA) from the 1970s to the 1990s, especially within the party's left-wing.
Joseph Raseta was a Malagasy physician, politician, and intellectual who co-founded the Democratic Movement for Malagasy Renewal with Joseph Ravoahangy-Andrianavalona and Jacques Rabemananjara.
