Meritocrazy VS Democracy

There's this passage i read yesterday about this issue of meritocracy against democracy which i feel strongly of sharing because it shows to a great extend the issue of elitism. Part of the lesson about this passage was on a question "The irony between meritocracy and democracy". Meritocracy is a system in which the talented, the ones who excel are rewarded in terms of wealth or status.(its crazy because it makes every study till they drop) On the other hand, democracy is a governance system where people are equal(e.g. in opportunities) and is linked with egalitarian. Therefore, is it possible to call a state that is both meritocratic and democratic without any contradiction?In my point of view, i guess its no, at least not demonstrating both ideology to the full extent.
Meritocracy is one of my country's stepping stone towards today's powerful development. However, meritocracy came along with some other debatable social issues. One of such would be elitism. Undeniably my country does exist elitism from our banding education system to WSM's incident. The main objective of meritocracy in my society is to discover the talented elites so as to provide them with additional opportunities to extend their knowledge with wider coverage of exposure in both academic and non-academic aspects. This is to prepare them as future leaders(political, economic, professionals) to drive this country because my society's only resources is human being. With such ideology, it shaped my country to be one which has strong focus on academic and placing alot of importance on the paper of degree. Often enough we are able to see how meritocracy is able to widen the gap of inequality in my country. As mentioned those identified elite talents will then continue in a route that will be only for the few percent in my country. They will carry on in top schools and institute and might also continue their studies abroad in top ranking universities in US or UK. After which these people will or may return to their homeland and either participate in politic or in business activity(either which they will still be in the same category such as the old boys' club).For these people, they'll will have the same hang-out place, similar restaurants they visit, same golf course they show their talent(especially the one along thomson road) etc. With such cluster, people of the same group will tends to meet people of the same category, marry the same kind, give birth and let the inequality gap widens. At the same time although the middle and low-income family's children still hold a chance of performing well and "promote" to the elite level, they are already in disadvantage in terms of not having the affluent to be able to attend extra lessons to excel their academic performances, learn musical instruments to improve their attribute and banded into the common academic group which further lower their opportunities to show their very own and individual talent. Worse still with the banding system, the lower bands group are more vulnerable to discrimination and those who cannot make it in life. Therefore, being a state known also as democratic, is this system really offers everyone a chance an opportunity?Or instead with its meritocracy system it has brought out elite that bring vast improvement to the country at the expense of other commoners?
So does meritocracy contradicts democracy?