ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar,
After President Andry Rajoelina was impeached by the national legislature for desertion of duty, an elite military force told AFP on Tuesday that it had assumed control of Madagascar.
The 51-year-old president had gone into hiding following weeks of anti-government protests in the island country and had rejected mounting calls to resign.
The commander of the CAPSAT military force, Colonel Michael Randrianirina, issued a statement inside a government facility in the capital and told AFP, "We have taken power."
According to him, a committee made up of army, gendarmerie, and national police personnel will be established by the unit.
CAPSAT played a major role in the 2009 coup that first brought Rajoelina to power.
“Perhaps in time it will include senior civilian advisers. It is this committee that will carry out the work of the presidency,” Randrianirina said in his statement.
“At the same time, after a few days, we will set up a civilian government,” he said.
The announcement came minutes after the lower house of parliament voted to impeach Rajoelina in a session dismissed by the presidency as “devoid of any legal basis.”
Just hours earlier, Rajoelina had dissolved the national assembly by decree to block the session.
The impeachment passed with 130 votes in favor—well above the two-thirds constitutional threshold required in the 163-member chamber.
The High Constitutional Court has to validate the vote.
Rajoelina, a former mayor of the capital Antananarivo, said late Monday he was sheltering in a “safe space” after attempts on his life, without revealing his location.
The protests began on September 25 and reached a pivotal point at the weekend when mutinous soldiers and security forces, including CAPSAT, joined the demonstrators and called for the president and other government ministers to step down.
-BSS
