Madagascar military unit seizes power

AFP | Antananarivo

Email : editor@newsofbahrain.com

An elite military unit said yesterday it had taken power in Madagascar after the national assembly voted to impeach President Andry Rajoelina for desertion of duty.

The 51-year-old president had refused growing demands to step down, going into hiding after weeks of anti-government street demonstrations in the island nation.

"We have taken power," Colonel Michael Randrianirina, head of the CAPSAT military unit, told AFP after reading out a statement at a government building in the capital.

The unit will set up a committee composed of officers from the army, gendarmerie and national police, he said. 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.