Madagascan former prime minister Jacques Sylla was elected here on Tuesday as president of the National Assembly, lower house of the parliament.
He won by 123 out of 124 votes in the 127-seat National Assembly, which convened its first meeting following the national legislative election last month.
As traditional practice, the eldest and youngest members of the house presided over the meeting before the new president was elected.
Born on the island of Sainte-Marie, off the east coast of Madagascar in 1946, Jacques Hugues Sylla was the prime minister of Madagascar under President Marc Ravalomanana from February 2002 until January 2007.
He is the son of Albert Sylla, who served as foreign minister under Madagascar's first president, Philibert Tsiranana, until being killed in a plane crash in July 1967.
He served as foreign minister himself from 1993 to 1996, under President Albert Zafy.
He was an opponent of President Didier Ratsiraka and was one of the lawyers advising Marc Ravalomanana when he was elected Mayor of Antananarivo in 1999.
Sylla backed Ravalomanana in the crisis that followed the December 2001 presidential election and argued Ravalomanana's case before the High Constitutional Court.
On Feb. 26, 2002, in the midst of the crisis, Ravalomanana named Sylla as prime minister, a few days after Ravalomanana declared himself president, After Ravalomanana was sworn in for a second time in early May, Sylla was reappointed as prime minister on May 9.
Later in 2002, Sylla became the Secretary General of the ruling Tiako I Madagasikara (TIM) party, marking the first time that he had ever been a member of a political party.
Sylla resigned as prime minister on Jan. 19, 2007, at the end of Ravalomanana's first term. His resignation was accepted by Ravalomanana, who appointed Charles Rabemananjara as prime minister on Jan. 20.
In the September 2007 parliamentary election, Sylla stood as a TIM candidate in the Sainte-Marie constituency, winning with 51.04 percent of the vote.
Sylla is a Catholic and has dual Malagasy and French nationality.
TIM won 105 out of a total seats of 127 of the National Assembly.
Madagascan president Marc Ravalomanana announced an early election of the lower house last July on the ground that situation must be adapted to reality and adjusted with the new constitution, approved in a national referendum in April this year.
Source: Xinhua
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