JURIST - Paper Chase: Madagascar rivals agree on transitional unity government after presidency dispute

[JURIST] The current and former leaders of Madagascar reached a transitional power-sharing agreement on Saturday. According to the agreement, President Andry Rajoelina [official profile, in French] will now share power with representatives of the parties of ousted president Marc Ravalomanana [BBC profile] and former president Albert Zafy. The agreement came out of meetings [materials, PDF, in French] in Addis Abeba and is to be in accord with the Maputo agreements [materials, in French] reached earlier this year. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon [official website] welcomed [UN News Centre report] the deal and urged the leaders to speedily inaugurate the new transitional government, which is to be in power until elections are held next year.

The power-sharing deal comes in spite of Ravalomanana being convicted of misusing state funds [JURIST report] in June of this year. Although members of the African Union [official website] declared it unconstitutional, the high court approved the installment of Rajoelina in March of this year, after Ravalomanana resigned [BBC report] and handed power to the military. Supporters of Ravalomanana were arrested [JURIST report] and accused of inciting disorder and ordering [BBC report] soldiers to open fire on protesters.