The people of Madagascar found themselves increasingly immersed
in
a veritable socio-economic and political quagmire from 1975 until
1993, with their highly unpopular President, Admiral Didier Ratsiraka,
was removed from office. Many of those who had played such an
important rôle in easing him into power in 1975 by being activists
in
Zatovo Western Andevo Madagasikara (Zwam), a coalition of angry
students, intellectuals, peasants, as well as disaffected middle and upper
class elements, were again on hand in 1993, but this time to jeer and
curse him after the results of the presidential elections had been
announced to a largely enthusiastic public. However, the apparently
fickle temperament of Malagasy voters had been demonstrated before
and, ironically, some members of the same disparate groups had
cheered just as enthusiastically when President Philibert Tsiranana, the
leader of the pro-French Parti social démocratique (PSD),
had been forced
to step down in 1972 in the face of their urban-led revolutionary
movement centred in the capital, Tananarive (later renamed
Antananarivo), only months after winning the presidential elections
with over 99 per cent of the votes.