An elite Madagascar navy unit mentioned Tuesday it had taken energy within the Indian Ocean nation after parliamentarians voted to question President Andry Rajoelina following weeks of anti-government protests.
There have been celebrations within the streets of the capital after the commander of the CAPSAT navy unit, which joined the demonstrators on the weekend, introduced that it was in cost.
The presidency denounced “a transparent act of tried coup” and insisted that Rajoelina, in hiding reportedly in another country, “stays absolutely in workplace”.
Rajoelina, 51, had late Monday refused rising calls for to step down from the protest motion that began on September 25 over energy and water shortages, and developed right into a marketing campaign towards the president and ruling elite.
Exterior the presidential palace, CAPSAT commander Colonel Michael Randrianirina learn out an announcement asserting the suspension of the structure.
A governing committee composed of officers from the military, gendarmerie and nationwide police could be established, he mentioned. “Maybe in time it’ll embody senior civilian advisers.”
“It’s this committee that can perform the work of the presidency,” Randrianirina mentioned. “On the identical time, after just a few days, we’ll arrange a civilian authorities.”
“We have now taken energy,” he confirmed to AFP.
Afterwards, officers from the unit rolled by way of the capital in armoured Humvees and pick-up vans en path to their base, the place a whole lot of troopers stood in formation to obtain them.
Crowds lined the pavements, cheering and waving as they handed, whereas some adopted the convoy in their very own vehicles, honking their horns in a victory lap by way of a metropolis nonetheless on edge.
“It’s an enormous pleasure,” mentioned businesswoman Baovola Zanarison Rakotomanga, 41, among the many crowds celebrating at metropolis corridor.
“We have now suffered for thus lengthy… we hope to now be capable to transfer ahead, united,” she informed AFP.
– ‘Protected place’ –
Parliamentarians pushed forward with the vote to question Rajoelina for desertion of responsibility regardless of a bid by the presidency to dam the movement by ordering the dissolution of the nationwide meeting.
The vote handed with 130 votes in favour — properly above the two-thirds constitutional threshold required.
The presidency mentioned the session was “devoid of any authorized foundation”.
However the constitutional courtroom later validated the impeachment and confirmed Randrianirina’s authority.
After studies that he had left the nation with the help of France, Rajoelina — who has French nationality — mentioned in a nationwide handle late Monday that he was in a “protected place to guard my life”.
He didn’t reveal his location however some studies mentioned he could have gone to Dubai.
Making clear he wouldn’t step down, Rajoelina mentioned he was “on a mission to search out options” to the political disaster and wouldn’t let the impoverished nation “destroy itself”.
The comparatively low-key youth-led protest motion took a flip on the weekend when CAPSAT — which performed a significant function within the 2009 coup that first introduced Rajoelina to energy — joined the protesters.
They had been adopted by the gendarmerie which admitted to “faults and excesses” towards the demonstrations through which a minimum of 22 folks had been killed, based on the UN, an early toll dismissed by the federal government.
At a recent rally outdoors metropolis corridor Tuesday, demonstrators expressed anger at France, the colonial ruler till independence in 1960, accusing it of meddling within the island’s affairs.
“It’s like they’re colonising us once more,” mentioned civil engineer Koloina Rakotomavonirina, 26. “We would like them to depart our island for good.”
Including to statements of concern from the African Union and SADC regional bloc, a United Nations spokesman mentioned Tuesday “if there’s a coup underway, we might stand towards that.”
“We’re attempting to see precisely what occurs, as soon as the mud is settled,” mentioned Farhan Haq, a spokesman for the UN chief, Antonio Guterres.
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