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.