Recently, the personality of Maminiaina Ravatomanga, also known as Mami, is gaining popularity in Madagascar. Mami Ravatomanga is a businessman, managing director of the Sodiat Group and advisor to the current Malagasy president Andry Rajoelina. Maminiaina Ravatomanga has also been included in Panama Papers as a shareholder of Essential Time Group Limited, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands.
Photos of T-shirts with the effigy of Mami Ravatomanga have recently appeared on Whatsapp and Facebook. It should be noted that he was named the second richest man in Madagascar by Forbes in 2017. This publication has provoked reactions from Malagasy users of social media, because the possible appointment of Mami Ravatomanga as president of Madagascar threatens the re-election of the current president.
The T-shirt reads: “I’m going to make the poor rich”. This is part of an anti-corruption campaign led by the Malagasy authorities. Thus, the anti-corruption police of Madagascar announced about the theft of at least 46 billion ariary in 2023. At the moment, many other cases of corruption are still being investigated.
The information on the possible involvement of Maminiaina Ravatomanga in the elections is particularly interesting because he is an unofficial adviser to the current president of Madagascar, Andry Rajoelina. However, according to rumors on the Internet, their relations at the moment are far from fraternal. Thus, according to information circulated in the media in 2021, Maminiaina Ravatomanga and Andry Rajoelina would have serious disputes. Africa Intelligence reported that this disagreement was due to the arrest of one of the parents of Maminiaina Ravatomanga’s partners.
It was also published on Facebook that Mami Ravatomanga and his team would be preparing the election campaign. On the presented document we can see possible solutions to develop the Malagasy economy, including the fight against corruption.
Meanwhile, so far Maminiaina Ravatomanga has not made any official announcement on his participation in the presidential elections, while the period of census and registration on the electoral list as part of her reorganization is finally over. The Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) registered 10/358,575 voters. The reorganization itself will be finalized on June 10, 2023.
