The deposed president of Madagascar, Andry Rajoelina, confirmed that he had “left the country”, according to a statement from his entourage sent to AFP on the night of Wednesday, October 15 to Thursday, October 16, the eve of the expected inauguration of a colonel at the head of the country.
Andry Rajoelina, whom protesters had been shouting at in the street for several weeks, left the place between October 11 and 12 after “explicit and very serious threats were made against the life of the Head of State,” this press release states.
It is the first time that Andry Rajoelina has acknowledged his departure since French radio RFI announced on Sunday his exfiltration by a French military plane. During a speech on Monday, he said he had taken refuge in a “safe place,” without giving further details.
“Constitutional violations”
Colonel Michaël Randrianirina, who will be sworn in on Friday as the new president of this particularly poor island in the Indian Ocean, declared on Tuesday that his military unit was taking power following a vote to dismiss Andry Rajoelina in the National Assembly, which the president had dissolved a few hours earlier.
The “threats” against the deposed president occurred “when he had to leave on a mission abroad. To carry out his missions and protect himself, he left the country,” the statement said.
First installed in power in 2009 under similar conditions, when he was appointed by the military following a popular uprising, Andry Rajoelina, 51, describes the procedures that removed him as “constitutional violations.”
“It is not a coup d’état”
The decision of the High Constitutional Court to invite Colonel Randrianirina to become the new head of state “suggests the existence of acts of corruption”, according to Andry Rajoelina. As for the vote to dissolve the National Assembly, which he had dissolved a few hours earlier, “it also raises suspicions of coordination with the military faction,” he charges.
Colonel Randrianirina announced on Wednesday that he “will be sworn in as president of the Refoundation of the Republic of Madagascar” on Friday, in a press release signed by him and broadcast on public television.
“It was not a coup d’état, it was an assumption of responsibility because the country fell to the brink of collapse,” he defended himself before Malagasy television networks.
A committee of army, gendarmerie and police officers must oversee the reform of the institutions. The Generation Z youth movement, which began protests on September 25, welcomed the intervention of Colonel Michaël Randrianirina.
Source: BFM TV
