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COMOROS-VOTE-POLITICS
Outgoing Comoros leader Azali looks set to win new term
MORONI, Comoros, March 24, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Polls opened Sunday in the
tiny archipelago of Comoros, with President Azali Assoumani widely expected
to win a new term in an election that rivals say has been hijacked.
Some 300,000 voters are expected to turn out, with polling stations
opening at 8:00 am (0500 GMT).
“We need real change in this country, not empty words. We need peace,
security and progress,” said Mohamed Chaine, 38, one of the first to vote in
the capital, Moroni.
“I hope my choice will be respected,” said Allaoui Elarif, 70. “I don’t
expect any trouble, demonstrations here. It is afterwards, at the election
commission where I am afraid they will cheat.”
Huge campaign pictures of Azali, 60, emblazon the whitewashed walls of the
capital Moroni and along roads on the three islands of Grande Comore, Anjouan
and Moheli.
Those of his rivals are minute — a comparison that seems to speak
eloquently for their chances. The Supreme Court has barred the bid of some of
Azali’s major rivals, including former president Ahmed Abdallah Sambi,
accused of corruption.
In a pre-election visit to Anjouan, Azali oozed confidence and burst out
laughing when asked about defeat.
“That’s a question I won’t answer. When you set out to do something, you
do it to win!”
The mainly-Muslim Indian Ocean archipelago of some 800,000 people is one
of the world’s poorest and most coup-prone states.
It has suffered more than 20 successful or attempted power grabs since
gaining independence from France in 1975. Its first leader, Ahmed Abdallah,
lasted barely a month before being ousted.
– ‘Great masquerade’ –
Azali is staging the poll after Comorans voted in a referendum to support
the extension of presidential mandates from one five-year term to two,
rotating among the three islands.
The controversial change shocked a fragile balance of power established in
2001 that sought to end separatist crises on Anjouan and Moheli and halt the
endless cycle of coups.
The opposition fears that Azali, a native of Grande Comore and last
elected in 2016, could hold power for 10 more years until 2029.
The referendum last July led to violent protests on Anjouan, which would
have taken over the presidency in 2021.
The head of the Union of the Opposition group, former deputy president
Mohamed Ali Soilihi, is one of the candidates who has been barred from
running.
“This election is a great masquerade. The plot has been written out in
advance. On the evening of March 24, there’ll be an announcement of victory
(for Azali) in the first round,” Soilihi predicted. “It’ll be forced
through.”
“Everyone is against him,” said the leader of the Juwa Party, lawyer
Mahamoudou Ahamada. “If the vote were transparent, he couldn’t win. Azali has
no choice but to steal the election.” – ‘Rockslide plot’
Azali, a former army chief of staff, first seized power in a coup in April
1999.
He toppled an interim president he saw as weak in handling secessionist
forces and then was elected in 2002.
Earlier this month, according to his staff, Azali survived an attempt on
his life on Anjouan.
“People at the top of a mountain placed explosives, which they blew up to
cause a rockslide” as his convoy passed, his campaign director, Houmed
Msaidie, told AFP on March 7. “The president’s car stopped in time.”
Wires connected to dynamite were found at the scene, Msaidie said. Photos
sent to AFP by a police official showed tree branches and rocks partially
covering a road.
Critics dismiss this account as bogus.
Juwa campaign director Ibrahim Mohamed Soule said Azali’s team “creates
fake attacks or fake incidents to deter people from participating in the
elections freely”.
In March 2008, Comoran troops backed by an African Union military force
invaded Anjouan to put an end to the authoritarian rule of island leader
Mohamed Bacar.
The one-time police chief was accused of atrocities including killings,
torture and rape, as well as embezzlement, but he escaped.
The Comoros has tried repeatedly to lay claim at the UN General Assembly
to the fourth and wealthiest island in their archipelago, Mayotte, whose
inhabitants chose in a 1974 referendum to remain a French territory.
The gap in development has drawn many Comoran “boat people” to Mayotte in
search of a better life.
BSS/AFP/RY/1525