A group of military officers was holed up in a base near the capital’s airport on Thursday, a day after they tried to stage a coup in Madagascar.
Andry Rajoelina, a former disc jockey who seized power with military backing last year, appeared confident of his hold on power. On Wednesday he told reporters the majority of the military was behind him.
The capital was calm on Thursday, with no sign forces loyal to Rajoelina would try to oust the mutinous officers from the base where they had gathered.
Former President Albert Zafy, who ruled the Indian Ocean island nation from 1993 to 1996, said he supported the officers and their attempt to take power from Rajoelina.
“We hope they prevail,” he said.
Zafy joined Marc Ravalomanana, the president ousted by Rajoelina, and another former president, Didier Ratsiraka, in trying to seek a negotiated way out of the crisis set off by Rajoelina’s rise to power last year. But Rajoelina has rejected mediation efforts, imposing his own plan he says will lead to new presidential elections some time next year.
New constitution
Rajoelina held a constitutional referendum on Wednesday. His proposal largely resembled the existing constitution, but a key new clause states that the current leader of a so-called High Transitional Authority — Rajoelina — would remain in power until a new president is elected. That was seen as a bid by Rajoelina to stay in power indefinitely because there was no certainty new elections would be held.
The proposed constitution also sets the minimum age to be president at 35 instead of the current 40. Rajoelina is 36.
Voting in the referendum continued largely peacefully on Wednesday even after the officers’ declaration, which was broadcast only in part on one independent TV station.
The military has grown increasingly impatient with Rajoelina, who has been internationally isolated and accused of trampling on democracy. The West has frozen all but emergency and humanitarian aid for the impoverished island.
Rajoelina won’t be able to hold onto power much longer without the support of a united military. Since this Indian Ocean island gained independence from France in 1960, soldiers have repeatedly meddled in politics, complicating the struggle to establish stability and democracy.
Colonel Charles Andrianasoavina, who last year backed Rajoelina’s move to take power, on Wednesday called reporters to the base near the airport to announce officers would pursue national reconciliation, dissolve government institutions and put in place a national committee to lead the country at least provisionally.
He said political prisoners would be freed and called on exiles to return “to work together to save our fatherland”. He did not say who would form the provisional governing committee.
Exiled former president
Rajoelina has refused to allow Ravalomanana to return from exile in South Africa. In August, a court Rajoelina established convicted Ravalomanana in absentia of conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced him to life in prison in a case related to the turmoil of the coup that toppled him.
Rajoelina accused Ravalomanana of misuse of office and being blind to the poverty of his people. Ravalomanana says his rival is a populist and rabble-rouser with little genuine interest in democracy.
Ravalomanana ran a multimillion-dollar food and broadcasting empire, while Rajoelina himself owns radio and TV stations and is from the wealthy elite that has long dominated politics on the island.
Most Malagasy, as citizens of the island are called, live in poverty, which ecotourism, vanilla production and the recent discovery of oil have done little to alleviate. Madagascar is famed for its lemurs and other unique wildlife and was the inspiration for two animated films of the same name. — Sapa-AP