biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1936– )
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| biography:
| President of Madagascar (1975–93, 1997– ), born in Vatomandry, E Madagascar. He studied in Madagascar and France, served in the navy (1963–70), and was military attaché in Paris. Following independence (1960) there were frequent clashes between the country's two main ethnic groups, the highland Merina and the coastal Cotiers, and in 1972 the army, representing the Merina, took control. Martial law was imposed in 1975, and when this was lifted, Ratsiraka, a Cotier, was elected president under a new constitution. In 1976 he formed the Advance Guard of the Malagasy Revolution, which became the nucleus of a one-party state, but discontent, particularly among the Merina, remained. He was defeated by Albert Zafy in the presidential elections in 1993, but was proclaimed president again in 1997 after narrowly reversing the result in the 1996 elections. |
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