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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Thousands protest against new Madagascar leader |
| 2009-03-24 |
| Thousands of Madagascans took to the streets of Antananarivo Monday to demonstrate against Andry Rajoelina's army-backed ouster of Marc Ravalomanana at the helm of the Indian Ocean island. The demonstrators gathered in the capital's Ambohijatovo gardens, chanting slogans against the 34-year-old sacked mayor of the city, who was sworn in as president of a transition authority on Saturday. "Come back our father, come back Ravalo," chanted some of the protesters, in reference to the man who ruled the country for seven years before the army forced him to resign last week and swept Rajoelina to power. "We see Andry Rajoelina's accession to power as illegal and the international community says the same thing," Andrianatoandro Raharinaivo, a spokesman for Ravalomanana's TIM party, told AFP at the rally. Rajoelina, who only became the undisputed leader of the opposition two months ago, took the oath as president of a transition authority on Saturday at an inauguration ceremony attended by 40,000 supporters. Unde pressure from the army, the 59-year-old Ravalomanana resigned as president on March 17, clearing the way for Rajoelina after a bitter three-month power struggle during which around 100 civilians died. Rajoelina promptly suspended parliament and said fresh elections might take two years to organise, drawing a barrage of criticism from Western donors and regional powers who describe his takeover as a coup. |
| Posted by:Fred |