Association for the Rebirth of Madagascar

The Association for the Rebirth of Madagascar (AREMA) or Pillar and Structure for the Salvation of Madagascar (Andry sy Rihana Enti-Manavotra an'i Madagasikara) is a political party in Madagascar.

• National secretary: Pierrot Rajaonarivelo
• Interim national secretary: Pierre Houlder Ramaholimasy

History

The party was founded on 19 March 1976, as the political party of president Didier Ratsiraka. It held the majority of seats in the parliament until the fall of the Ratsiraka regime in 1991.

In the elections to the Senate held on 18 March 2001, AREMA won 49 of the 60 elected seats.

In the parliamentary election held on 15 December 2002, the party won 4.9 % of the popular vote and 3 out of 160 seats in the National Assembly, all three in Toamasina Province.

The current national secretary, Pierrot Rajaonarivelo, was elected at a party congress on November 29, 1997.^[1][2] He has been exiled in France since 2002 and has been convicted and sentenced in absentia. Ramaholimasy holds the position while Rajaonarivelo is out of the country.

Currently, the party is divided into two antagonistic factions: those behind Rajaonarivelo and those who claim to be supported by the party founder, Ratsiraka.

Rajaonarivelo sought to run in the December 2006 presidential election, but was not allowed to enter the country.

The Ratsiraka faction of the party chose not to participate in the September 2007 parliamentary election, while the Rajaonarivelo faction chose to participate. The Ratsiraka faction sought to prevent the Rajaonarivelo faction's participation, but on August 23 the High Constitutional Court ruled that the Rajaonarivelo faction could participate.^[3] The party did not win any seats in the election.

Name

The name originally meant Antokin'ny Revolisiona Malagasy (Responsible for the Malagasy revolution) in Malagasy and Avant-garde de la Révolution Malgache (Vanguard of the Malagasy revolution) in French. Sometime around 2001, the name was changed to Andry sy rihana enti-manavotra an'i Madagasikara (Malagasy) or Avant-garde pour la rénovation de Madagascar (French). The wish to have the same acronym in Malagasy and French means that the meanings of the name are somewhat different in the two languages.

Other explanations of the name exist, the ones above are used by the daily newspaper L'Express de Madagascar.

References

1. ^ "Madagascar: Ruling party conference revamps party, elects new head", Malagasy National Radio, Antananarivo, December 1, 1997.
2. ^ "Dec 1997 - Changes in structure of AREMA", Keesing's Record of World Events, Volume 43, December, 1997 Madagascar, Page 41948.
3. ^ Iloniaina Alain, "Madagascar: Arema pro-Pierrot Rajaonarivelo - la HCC donne son feu vert", L'Express de Madagascar (allAfrica.com), August 25, 2007 (French).