HISTORY has repeated itself in Madagascar where President Andry Rajoelina, who himself seized power in a coup, was toppled Tuesday.
He lost office in a military uprising capping weeks of youth protests over poverty, power outages and a lack of opportunity in the Indian Ocean island country.
Authors of the history that ushered him to power in 2009 when he swapped the disco turntables for first citizen status, the elite military unit led by Col Michael Randrianirina – has returned to write a new chapter replacing him.
Randrianirina who installed Rajoelina 16 years ago when his charisma had rallied youngsters frustrated at poverty and corruption has taken over.
Associated Press (AP) reported that right after parliament voted to impeach Rajoelina, who fled the country fearing for his safety, the leader of Madagascar’s elite CAPSAT military unit said the armed forces would form a council made up of officers from the armed forces and gendarmerie, a military unit that polices civilians, and would appoint a prime minister to “quickly” form a civilian government.
“We are taking power,” Col. Michael Randrianirina told reporters in front of a ceremonial presidential palace in the capital, Antananarivo, as protesters celebrated the news with soldiers.
He said the constitution and High Constitutional Court’s powers had been suspended, and that a referendum would be held in two years, though he didn’t go into detail.
From an undisclosed location after fleeing, Rajoelina issued a decree Tuesday trying to dissolve parliament’s lower house in an apparent attempt to preempt being impeached.
But lawmakers ignored it and voted overwhelmingly to end the rule of the 51-year-old leader, who himself came to power as a transitional leader in a military-backed coup in 2009.
A former DJ once nicknamed “TGV” after the French fast train for his dynamism, Rajoelina was the world’s youngest head of state at 34 when he came to power in a coup in 2009.
He took power from the Hery Rafalimanana.
Now the three-time president has fled after disappointing the Indian Ocean island’s young majority in the latest protest cycle against political elites.
At the time, Rajoelina was six years too young to even legally be president, according to the constitution.
But his youth, and his celebrity status as a former DJ and radio station owner, were precisely what gave him the advantage.
When he successfully ran for mayor of the capital Antanarivo in 2007, his party was called Tanora MalaGasy Vonona (Young Malagasys Determined).
The “TGV” moniker was a play on words: the party initials and a nod to his high-speed personality. AFP/Rex Mphisa