Comoros
Comoros elections postponed

afrol News, 11 March - The presidential elections that were to have been arranged on Comoros on Sunday have been postponed until Wednesday, according to local news reports. Eight of the nine presidential candidates had announced their boycott of the elections the day before, denouncing widespread fraud. 

According to the local daily, 'Al Watwan', the Comoran government yesterday announced it would bow to pressure from the eight presidential candidates and postpone the elections for three days to discuss the terms of the enforcement of the poll. 

Sunday's elections were due to be arranged only on the archipelago's biggest island, Grand Comore, following the new principle of a rotating presidency between the three islands of the Union; Anjouan, Gran Comore and Moheli. The simultaneous referendum over new island constitutions, to be held on all the islands, were also postponed on Grand Comore but carried out on the two other islands yesterday. No results have so far been published.

The only candidate willing to contest yesterday's elections in Gran Comore was the military ruler of Comoros, Colonel Azali Assoumani, who had stepped down in January to be able to present himself in these elections. His eight rivals claimed they had discovered widespread fraud in the poll, including the printing of duplicate voters' cards and the enrolment of a large number of phantom voters. 

A group of 40 military election observers from the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) had arrived on Gran Comore on Saturday. The group was also to assist the government in the case of unrest during and after the election.

The postponed elections were to be the first in a row to end the long political crisis of the Comoran archipelago, where subsequent military coups and mismanagement from Gran Comore had led Anjouan and Moheli to declare their independence in 1997. Extensive peace talks have led to a beginning national reconciliation and a thorough constitutional reform, already approved in a referendum, ensures democracy and autonomy for all the islands.

The new Constitution put an end to the Federal Islamic Republic of the Comoros and the unliterary declared Republic of Anjouan and established the new Comoros Union. The three islands of the new Union will have greater autonomy and the Union's President is to rotate between the islands. All the islands will also have their own constitutions, which were to be presented in a referendum yesterday. The mandate of the Union's new government is to be limited to affairs of religious and nationality, currency, foreign and defence policy, according to the new Constitution.

The first President of the Union was to be citizen from the island of Gran Comore and to be elected by the island's inhabitants yesterday. Meanwhile, the islands of Anjouan and Moheli were to elect the Union's two Vice-Presidents. It is unclear whether the Vice-President elections were carried through.

The last poll round in this constitutional reform process is foreseen for 31 March and 7 April, when voters on the three islands are to elect their local presidents.

Sources: Based on press reports and afrol archives

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