Comoros
Legitimacy of Comoro elections disputed

afrol News, 10 May - As a newly appointed "Election Ratification Commission" yesterday recognised Colonel Azali Assoumani as the winner of last month's presidential election, protest is widespread. The Comoro election commission earlier had declared the elections null and void and opposition candidates do not recognise the confirmation of Assoumani. 

A joint statement by the prominent presidential candidates Mahamoud Mradabi and Saïd Ali Kemal sent to afrol News, denounces "the political crisis in Comoros". Kemal and Mradabi appeal to the 'Election Ratification Commission' - which they do not recognise as a legal institution - "to take note of the reality" of the serious flaws in the organisation of the 14 April poll. 

The Independent National Election Commission (CNEIH) already before the election had decided that the organisation of the poll did not comply with official standards. The Commission based its decision on the general chaos noted in the electoral lists, which required some time to be reorganised to comply with standards. A project, "Support to the Electoral Process of the Comoros", had begun this work. When declaring the poll "null and void," the CNEIH was however immediately dissolved. 

The CNEIH was then replaced by the 'Election Ratification Commission', appointed by the transitional government loyal to former military strongman, Colonel Assoumani. Yesterday, the Chairman of the Commission, Bastoini Soulaimana, confirmed Assoumani's claim to the presidency. "Colonel Azali Assoumani, who won the largest number of votes, is elected president of the Union of the Comoros," Soulaimana read out the official statement. He allegedly had obtained 75 percent of the vote.

Candidates Kemal and Mradabi do not recognise the Commission, and claim that only the dissolved CNEIH, which oversaw the vote itself, had a legitimate right to approve or disapprove the election results. The CNEIH had disapproved, they hold. Also a National Observer Mission had found the poll was rigged. Kemal and Mradabi demand a "strict application" of the CNEIH's "legitimate decision to nullify the results of the presidential poll." The two politicians have announced they will mobilise demonstrations.

Colonel Assoumani however already seems to have secured international recognition to his claim to the presidency. A special envoy of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), Francisco Caetano Madeira, who headed a team of OAU observers and troops, called on all Comoro parties to "accept the decision." A UN media reports that the UNDP representative in the Comoros, Andre Carvalho, refers to candidates Kemal and Mradabi as being "partisans". 

The OAU and the UN have had a doubtful role in imposing their terms for "peace and reconciliation" in Comoros; at several occasions directly contrary to the expressed will of the Comoro population. The OUA even threatened to invade the island of Anjouan after it had voted for independence and imposed a sea blockade. UNDP representative Carvalho yesterday expressed hope the current cyclonic weather situation "could dampen initiatives to create trouble".

Candidates Kemal and Mradabi have denounced the continued support Colonel Assoumani has received from the Transitional Government and a "certain part of the international community".

The flawed 14 April elections were the last in a row of polls where the Indian Ocean archipelago was to transfer itself into a new Comoro Union, based on democracy and autonomous rule in the three islands Grande Comore, Anjouan and Moheli. The creation of the Comoro Union came after years of political trouble as Anjouan unilaterally had declared independence and Colonel Assoumani took power in Grande Comore in a military coup in 1999. Assoumani only stepped down in January this year to be eligible in the April presidential poll. 

Sources: Based on Kemal and Mradabi statement, UN sources and afrol archives

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