English to become Madagascar's third official language

Antananarivo - The island of Madagascar off the African coast will adopt English as its third official language alongside French and Malagasy following a referendum to change the country's constitution, reports said Monday. Four days after the public referendum, the Interior Ministry published the preliminary official results on Sunday. Some 43.75 per cent of the around 7.35 million Malagasy eligible to vote cast their votes at 17,546 polling stations.

Some 75,3 per cent voted for the changes pushed by President Marc Ravalomanana, who was re-elected in December 2006.

According to the president's Madagascar Action Plan, which is intended to "speed up progress in the country," the main aim of the new constitution is the decentralization of the administration and the transfer of responsibilities to local offices.

The currently existing six provinces are due to be abolished and replaced by the country's 22 regions.

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Posted : Mon, 09 Apr 2007 08:41:01GMT
Author : DPA

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