The national assembly is directly elected by universal suffrage, again for a five-year term.
Executive power is shared between the president and the prime minister.
Since 1995 the president appoints the prime minister, rather than the assembly. History Madagascar was colonized over 2,000 years ago by Africans and Indonesians. They were joined from the 12th century by Muslim traders, and, from 1500, Europeans began to visit the island. Portuguese, Dutch, and English traders having given up, the French established a colony in the mid-17th century but fled after a massacre by local inhabitants. In 1885 the country was made a French protectorate, though French control was not complete until 20 years later.