Madagascar coup leader Randrianirina sworn in as president

Madagascar’s coup leader Colonel Michael Randrianirina was sworn in as president on Friday to cheers, blaring trumpets and raised swords, days after taking control of the island nation in the wake of youth-led protests that forced out his predecessor.

Ex-leader Andry Rajoelina, whom lawmakers impeached after he fled abroad at the weekend, has condemned the takeover and refused to step down while in exile, despite widespread defections in the security forces and the High Constitutional Court ratifying the army takeover within hours of it happening.

The African Union and the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have condemned the coup, which came after weeks of “Gen Z” protests initially triggered by severe, chronic power and water shortages.

MILITARY-LED COMMITTEE TO RULE FOR UP TO TWO YEARS

“I will fully, completely, and justly fulfil the high responsibilities of my position as President of the Republic of Madagascar,” Randrianirina said in a ceremony at the High Constitutional Court, a colonial-era red-brick building of French windows, segmental arches and stone balustrades.

“I swear that I will exercise the power entrusted to me and dedicate all my strength to defending and strengthening national unity and human rights,” he added, before military officers raised swords and blew trumpets to mark the handover.

Randrianirina has said that a committee led by the military will rule for up to two years alongside a transitional government before organising new elections, although analysts doubt this can be guaranteed.

“Whether the military returns power depends less on words and more on binding safeguards, incentives and oversight,” Ketakandriana Rafitoson, Malagasy researcher and Vice Chair of Transparency International, told Reuters from Washington.

“Commitments such as ‘We will hand over in two years’ are weak if unaccompanied by mechanisms that limit the junta’s capacity to entrench itself”.

While many of the youths cheered the demise of Rajoelina, who came to office in a 2009 coup, some are already expressing misgivings about the swiftness with which the army stepped in.

Even Gen Z protesters who turned up to celebrate the new military leader’s inauguration, some wearing the trademark T-shirt depicting a skull with a straw hat from the Japanese manga series “One Piece”, did not consider their work done.

“Not yet,” 18-year-old student Mioty Andrianambinintsoa said outside the court, as dignitaries draped in the red, green and white of the Malagasy flag walked past her to waiting jeeps. “This is a stage. Our aims haven’t been achieved.”

Asked what those aims were, fellow protester Francko Ramananvarivo, 23, said: “Our objective is to be led by a government that is close to the people. We are not there yet.”

ELITE ARMY UNIT

Randrianirina is a commander in the elite CAPSAT army unit that played a role in the 2009 coup that brought Rajoelina to power, although he was not involved in that putsch himself. He broke ranks with the president during the protests, urging soldiers not to fire on protesters and offering to protect them.

Underlying Madagascar’s periodic upheavals is a young population - the average age is under 20 - and some of the world’s worst poverty, which blights the lives of three-quarters of its roughly 30 million people.

Despite exports of prized commodities such as vanilla, nickel, sapphires and the white pigment ilmenite, the Indian Ocean island’s average income is barely $600 a year, while prices of basic goods such as the staple rice have spiralled.

Between its independence in 1960 and 2020, GDP per capita plunged by nearly half, according to the World Bank, making it one of the few nations to have become worse off over that period.