Madagascar: Delimitation of constituencies

Updated June 2010

Extracted from: Lucien Toulou 2009 "Chapter 6: Madagascar" IN Denis Kadima and Susan Booysen (eds) Compendium of Elections in Southern Africa 1989-2009: 20 Years of Multiparty Democracy, EISA, Johannesburg, 202.

According to the constitution, a decree from the cabinet determines the number of seats in the National Assembly, their apportionment and the delimitation of constituencies. A presidential decree issued in July 2007 confirmed the delimitation of constituencies and the allocation of seats for the sitting National Assembly [Décret 2007-721]. It established that the country is divided into 119 constituencies for the National Assembly Elections and specified the allocation of seats in each constituency. The 127 National Assembly seats were distributed as follows:

  • 2 seats for six constituencies in Antananarivo (Districts I to IV), for Toamasina II and for Toliara II; and
  • 1 seat for each of the remaining constituencies throughout the country.

The EISA Observer Mission to the 23 September 2007 National Assembly elections noted that the current allocation of seats in Madagascar was undertaken without any clear or defined criteria. For the mission, one of the main complaints from the opposition parties was that the president and his government had eroded the principle of "one person, one vote" in allocating only one seat to constituencies that had traditionally demonstrated strong support for opposition parties, despite the large size of their populations. It appeared to the mission that the allocation of seats was done regardless of the relative population or size of each constituency. The EISA mission therefore stressed the need for the delimitation process to ensure that every person's vote carries the same political weight (EISA 2008, 21, 32). The delimitation of constituencies should be guided by unambiguous factors such as the population density, the ease of transport and communication, geographical features, existing patterns of human settlement, financial viability and administrative capacity.

References

DÉCRET 2007-721, du 25 juillet 2007 fixant le nombre des membres de l'Assemblée Nationale, la répartition des sièges sur l'ensemble du territoire national ainsi que le découpage des circonscriptions électorales.

EISA 2008 Election Observer Mission Report Madagascar National Assembly Elections 23 September 2007 [PDF document].