HAT national meeting: the constituent assembly passed by a thread

The expected result finally managed to emerge from the, somehow, chaotic process. The HAT got its roadmap passed by a special council of members selected by HAT region chiefs from almost countrywide unknown political parties, supposed to represent the whole people. The majority has, on this account, validated the constituent assembly option as the outcome of Ivato’s meeting, at the expenses of the referendum for the incoming Republic. This « victory » would help the young Andry Rajoelina getting a fundamental law tuned to order, and consequently; access to the presidential race despite his age.  

The HAT keeps on pledging the political decision which granted full power to Andry Rajoelina following his riddance of elected parliamentarians. But the international defence of this Ivato move and its outcome’s credibility will prove very difficult in Maputo, even more since the Rajoelina leadership turned the African Union’s invitation, and sent its Prime minister Camille Vital as messenger. The  » teny ifampierana »‘s resolution has no basis, let alone any legal one, but a dim reference to a Malagasy tradition: a past ages’ Malagasy tradition used to enforce a decision voted by a makeshift majority. 

The vote’s standards are themselves not much convincing for the HAT. Only 912 from 2500 anonymous unelected participants were entitled to vote. The involvement rate is by itself a slap in the face from too many people finding the process too much childish to be deciding the nation’s fate. The HAT would certainly have welcomed a better score sheet than 515 votes, or 54% of 912 voters. It is minor by any standards. The HAT « victory » is progressively being undermined by the succession of poor results. In the end, Andry Rajoelina got his the constituent assembly option passed by 308 voices against 203 supportive of the referendum. The dictating authorities can be thanking God that only a little less than 400 voters boycotted the process. The direct popular consultation has been avoided by a mere thread.  

During the HAT meeting’s proceedings, some judicial big guns openly displayed their inclination to the constitutional referendum. Could the constituent assembly option be maintained, they would like it to be capitalized as Transitional National Assembly. Such a specification is paramount to the erection of a government based on the assembly’s balance of powers, as well as to the legal dissolution of the Assembly’ itself at the new Republic’s advent . Andry Rajoelina actually proposed a hybrid solution: keeping his Prime minister Vital in charge, agreeing on a second opened government, and keeping the incoming deputies in charge beyond the transitional period. In the end, the  » teny ifampierana » never deviated from its basic purpose: masking a single political mobility’s unilateral  aspirations and earning time.