Madagascar Country Report

Madagascar is a developing country in the Indian Ocean, off the east coast of Africa. Despite possessing significant natural resources, it remains among the poorest nations in the world, due to a combination of poor governance, corruption, and repeated crises at the executive level. The situation has deteriorated in recent years, especially due to the country’s extreme vulnerability to climate change, as illustrated by a five-year drought since 2018, which has led to a nationwide famine. Entrenched poverty and limited growth prospects have, in turn, contributed to rising petty and violent crime rates.

Political divisions and personal rivalries remain persistent obstacles to Madagascar's socio-economic development. The incumbent president won a second successive mandate in November 2023, but elections were widely boycotted by the opposition and marred by violence.

A number of potentially deadly diseases, notably bubonic plague and malaria, are present, with the lack of access to medical care in many parts of the island often resulting in widespread and prolonged outbreaks.

The capital city, Antananarivo, has reasonable infrastructure by regional standards, and communication systems and utilities are adequate. However, limited transportation and medical infrastructure pose significant concerns for foreign travelers outside of the capital.

Crime rates have remained high over the past decade, driven by the country’s political turmoil and deteriorating economic conditions. Civil unrest occurs intermittently in the main population centers, driven by socio-economic grievances and political developments.

Madagascar has experienced regular episodes of violence involving low-level bomb attacks linked to political turmoil. The latest peak occurred in September 2013 amid an electoral campaign, during which up to five explosions occurred in a week. However, none have been documented in recent years, and these only present a limited threat to foreign nationals.

Varying road conditions and poor driving habits make overland travel in Madagascar hazardous. Fuel shortages and water and electricity outages are common, while communications networks are not reliable outside of urban centers. Madagascar’s high exposure to violent climactic events, which can compromise the integrity of public infrastructure, constitutes an increasing risk for travelers.

The country is vulnerable to disruptive cyclones between November and April.

Madagascar experiences periodic outbreaks of deadly diseases, notably bubonic plague and malaria, with the country’s under-resourced medical sector struggling to provide even basic healthcare services outside of Antananarivo.

Politics in Madagascar takes place under a semi-presidential and bicameral representative framework, similar to that of its former French colonial power, where the president is head of state and the prime minister the head of government. Both the executive and lower chamber are elected every five years, with a one-year gap between elections, and the upper chamber every six. Despite being a fairly recent regime – the current republic was installed in 2009 – elections have remained largely peaceful affairs and have consistently been deemed fair by international observers. Madagascar’s political culture is highly fractured, with a great number of small parties only created to support the individual candidacies of highly charismatic leaders.

Political life remains heavily dominated by a personal rivalry between two-time president Marc Ravalomanana and incumbent and three-time president Andry Rajoelina. The latter toppled the former in a coup in 2009 and, after both agreed not to run for the presidency in the country’s first post-coup elections in 2013, they again ran against each other in 2018. Rajoelina won by ten percentage points in the second round of the presidential election in late December, marking the first democratic handover of political power in Madagascar's history. Legislative elections held in May 2019 delivered a landslide victory to Rajoelina's political party, which won 84 out of 151 seats in the National Assembly.

Scandals marred Rajoelina’s second term in office, especially his acquisition of French citizenship. Malagasy law stipulates that an adult national who voluntarily seeks foreign citizenship would lose their Malagasy citizenship and that only Malagasy nationals are constitutionally permitted to run and be elected President. The scandal momentarily united many opposition candidates, who staged disruptive yet mostly peaceful protests in Antananarivo through the November 2023 campaign. The High Constitutional Court rejected their calls for Rajoelina’s disqualification and the suspension of the election; they subsequently boycotted the vote, and participation levels reached historical lows of 44 percent, and Rajoelina was re-elected with less than 60 percent.