Comoros President Azali Assoumani has won a fourth term in an election contested by the opposition, who deemed it “fraudulent.”
The electoral body Ceni announced his victory with 63% of the vote.
Despite allegations of ballot stuffing and early closures made by opposition candidates, voter turnout was low, standing at only 16% due to an opposition boycott, as reported by the Reuters news agency.
“We cannot talk about results because there was no election,” Mouigni Baraka Said Soilihi, one of Mr Assoumani’s opponents, was quoted as saying by Reuters.
International election observers have asserted that the voting process was mostly free and fair despite reported irregularities by the opposition. The election commission disclosed that out of 189,000 voters who went to the polls, only 55,259 (16% of registered voters) participated in the presidential election.
The low turnout was influenced by calls for a boycott from some opposition candidates, leading certain voters to engage solely in the concurrent gubernatorial elections. With a registered voter population exceeding 330,000 in a country estimated to have a population of 836,000 by the World Bank.
Azali Assoumani, a former military officer, initially seized power through a coup in 1999 and secured his first election victory in 2002. After a hiatus in politics from 2006, he staged a comeback with a presidential win in 2016. A controversial 2018 referendum, which eliminated presidential term limits, allowed him to pursue a fourth term despite widespread protests.
Assoumani’s leadership has faced controversy, with critics accusing him of imprisoning and exiling political opponents. Currently serving as the chairperson of the African Union.