VOTERS in the Comoros choose a new president on Sunday with incumbent Azali Assoumani, who has already extended his time in office through constitutional change, voicing confidence of winning a third consecutive term against a divided opposition.
Nearly 340,000 people are eligible to vote in the predominantly Muslim Indian Ocean archipelago, whose population is under a million but nearly half live below the poverty line, according to the World Bank.
Known for vanilla and fragrant flowers used in luxury perfume, Comoros proclaimed independence in 1975 from France, which is home to a large diaspora.
Several opposition figures have urged voters to boycott the ballot, in which five candidates are standing against 65-year-old Assoumani for the top job.
Security will be beefed up for voting day and the army is on standby in case of disturbances but displays of political protest are rare.
A demonstration organised by the pro-boycott camp for Tuesday was called off. “We received reports about the arrest of some of our members,” Ahmed Hassan El Barwane, general secretary of the opposition Juwa party told AFP.
Since winning re-election in 2016, former army chief-of-staff colonel Assoumani — who currently holds the rotating chair of the African Union — has thrown opponents in jail or forced them into exile.
Arch-rival and highly popular predecessor ex-president Ahmed Abdallah Sambi was handed a life sentence in November 2022 for high treason.
In the same case, former vice-president Mohamed Ali Soilih, who lives in exile in Paris, was tried in absentia.
Voters are also choosing governors in the polls, which open at 0500 GMT and close at 1500 GMT, with results expected in the following days.
If no candidate wins outright, a second round is set for February 25.
“It’s totally possible to get through in the first round,” Ali Mliva Youssouf, head of the pro-regime Alliance of the Presidential Movement coalition, told AFP.
