After a day of clashes between security personnel and protesters, calm has returned to Madagascar’s capital Antananarivo.
Reports have previously indicated that the clashes left two dead and 16 injured in a demonstration banned by the government.
Thousands of opponents gathered on Saturday to denounce new electoral laws, which they say are designed to lock out their candidate from a presidential election due this year.
However through a televised event on the same day, President of Madagascar described this as coup and warned ‘’troublemakers’’ against further action.
“I call on all the people of Madagascar to be calm, respect democracy, but what happened on Saturday is nothing but a coup,” President Hery Rajaonarimampianina said in a television address, referring to clashes between security forces and police and opposition protesters.
On Sunday morning, several dozen soldiers closed the square on 13 May, the historic site of all the major demonstrations in the Malagasy capital.
The country is experiencing a tense political atmosphere, where the opposition accuses the Madagascar President of wanting to muzzle them, few months before the elections slated for the end of the year.
