Opposition to the Malagasy government called for demonstrations against the new electoral law on 21 April. In Madagascar, the opposition MPs tried to defy a ban on demonstrations this Saturday, April 21, 2018 in Antananarivo against the new electoral laws.

The police chief of the capital and the head of the region considered that it was an illegal act.

The rally quickly swung into violent clashes with the police. The protest was banned by local authorities on Tuesday, and police fired tear gas at protesters who responded by throwing stones. Nearly a thousand men had been deployed to contain several thousand demonstrators. There was a lot of stone throwing in response to tear gas and sound grenades but also to rubber bullets.

It was not until around noon that the security forces used their weapons to fire in the air with live ammunition. Exceeded by the situation about forty soldiers found refuge between the walls of the town hall before being exfiltrés.

The police are armed for some of them with firearms. They move through the streets of the Malagasy capital in pick-ups and motorbikes to keep the crowd angry. This morning, the clashes between the police lasted more than three hours.

According to a provisional assessment given by the head of the HJRA hospital in Antananarivo, the clashes have so far killed four demonstrators, including two children, and about 20 wounded evacuated on one side as well as on the other. 'other.

The opposition, for its part, considers that it has the authorization issued by the Urban Commune of Antananarivo, led by the wife of the former president Ravalomanana.

"We will not stop there," warned the party MP TIM Hanitra Razasmanantsoa, ​​considered in recent days as the spokesman for the opposition.

The MP has also arrested the President of the Republic, currently outside the country. Hanitra Razasmanantsoa asked Hery Rajaonarimampianina to stay where he is and not to return for the good of the country and its people.

Opposition protests against "scandalous adoption of three election laws" in early April by Parliament.

New electoral laws in question

It is a fight against the electoral laws passed last April 4 which is at the origin of these movements of anger. One of them provides for the ineligibility of candidates already sentenced. The parties of the two former presidents, the TIM of Ravalomanana and the Mapar of Rajoelina and their 73 deputies contest this vote which would exclude their leader.

Corrupt acts to buy the votes of parliamentarians were reported by the opposition. The High Court must validate in the coming weeks these new provisions.