Army seizes power in Madagascar, president impeached

An elite military unit that backed youth-led anti-government street protests said on Tuesday it had taken power in Madagascar after the national assembly voted to impeach President Andry Rajoelina.

Rajoelina, who was in hiding reportedly out of the country, had refused growing demands to step down after demonstrations started on Sept.25 won the backing of the CAPSAT military unit at the weekend.

CAPSAT commander Colonel Michael Randrianirina read out a statement at the presidential palace saying the unit would set up a governing committee composed of officers from the army, gendarmerie and national police.

“Perhaps in time it will include senior civilian advisers. It is this committee that will carry out the work of the presidency,” Randrianirina said.

An unidentified soldier loyal to CAPSAT military unit commander Col. Michael Randrianirina announces to protesters that the armed forces are taking control of the country in Antananarivo, Madagascar, on Tuesday. AP

“At the same time, after a few days, we will set up a civilian government,” he said.

“We have taken power,” he confirmed to reporters afterwards.

After the announcement, officers from the unit rolled through the capital in armoured Humvees and pick-up trucks, journalists saw.

Crowds lined the pavements, cheering and waving as they passed, while some followed the convoy in their own cars, honking their horns in a victory lap through a city still on edge.

The near-daily protests, led by a youth movement called Gen Z, took a turn at the weekend when CAPSAT - which played a major role in the 2009 coup that first brought Rajoelina to power - joined the demonstrators.

They were followed by the gendarmerie paramilitary police force, which admitted to “faults and excesses” in their response to the demonstrations.

Parliamentarians on Tuesday pushed ahead with the impeachment vote despite Rajoelina’s attempt to block it by issuing a decree hours earlier to dissolve the national assembly.

Protesters dance on top of a car during a protest calling for President Andry Rajoelina to step down in Antananarivo, Madagascar, on Tuesday. AP

The impeachment vote passed with 130 votes in favour - well above the two-thirds constitutional threshold required in the 163-member chamber.

In a statement as voting was under way, the presidency said the session was “devoid of any legal basis.”

The youth-led protests were ignited by anger over power and water shortages before developing into demonstrations against the president and ruling elite. After reports that he had left the country with the assistance of France, Rajoelina said in a national address late on Monday that he was in a “safe place to protect my life” but did not reveal his location.

The 51-year-old made clear he would not step down, saying he was “on a mission to find solutions” to the political crisis and would not let the impoverished Indian Ocean nation “destroy itself.”

Agence France-Presse