An odd way to change a government

摘要

If it was a coup, it was quite a strange one. A On March 17th, just a few hours after declaring he would fight to the death rather than ever resign as Madagascar's president, Marc Ravalomanana announced he was stepping down, transferring all power to a hand-picked military triumvirate. But within hours that trio, all hitherto loyal to the president, were persuaded (after their arrest) to hand over that power to Andry Rajoelina, the popular young mayor of Antananarivo, the capital, with whom Mr Ravalomanana had been locked in a power struggle for three months. Not a shot, it seems, was fired in anger. The new man's people say everything, at a pinch, has taken place in a legal framework.