| Advertisement |
June 4 (UPI) -- Madagascar President Hery Rajaonarimampianina named Christian Ntsay as the country's new prime minister after Olivier Mahafaly resigned on Monday. Ntsay was the fourth prime minister nominated by Rajaonarimampianina after he became the Malagasy president in 2014.
Advertisement
"This result of the nomination is an achievement of the political consensus with the opposition," Rajaonarimampianina said in a statement to the nation, Xinhua reported.
Mahafaly resigned to comply with a court ruling to pave the way for a unity government to end a political crisis in the island country off the coast of East Africa.
"I unconditionally accept this decision because I do not want to block a solution. I hand in my resignation without constraint or regret," Mahafaly told reporters at his office.
Madagascar's Constitutional Court ordered Rajaonarimampianina to dissolve his government in the court ruling last week. The order called for him to appoint a new prime minister in seven days and allowed him to remain president until 60 days before the next election, Bloomberg reported.
The court ruling came after 53 lawmakers asked the court to remove Rajaonarimampianina for failing to abide by the constitution after security forces killed five people protesting election laws.
Rajaonarimampianina approved an election law under which opposition candidate, Marc Ravalomanana, could run for office after an earlier version of the law had sparked the deadly protests.
The island country is located in the Indian Ocean is one of the world's poorest countries despite nickel, cobalt, gold, uranium and other mineral reserves. Foreign investors were scared away by a 2009 coup.
