Former Comoros Veep rejects presidential results

Comoros’ former Vice President Mohamed Ali Soilihi, also known as Mamadou, who is the ruling party’s presidential candidate has contested the vote results which gave victory to former coup leader Azali Assoumani.

“I do not recognize these results, which according to me are partial. On the issue of the figure, the INEC has no mandate to declare the results,” said Mamadou.

Colonel Azali Assoumani, who first seized power in a coup in 1999 and ruled until 2006 after winning the first multi-party poll in 2002, was declared winner of Sunday’s run-off with 40.9 percent of the votes, the election commission said.

Former coup leader wins presidential race in Comoros https://t.co/fkXliLOz1z via todayng pic.twitter.com/syoUJIy9FE

— Nigeria Newsdesk (NigeriaNewsdesk) April 16, 2016

Mamadou claimed that 23 of the 400 polling stations on Anjouan, one of the three Comoros islands, were yet to announce their results, adding that the ballots cast there were likely to favour him.

“23 Offices of vote on 400 to Anjouan (one of the three islands of the archipelago of the Comoros) are not included,” he said.

The pre-election campaigning was marked by personal attacks and allegations of corruption between Mamadou and Assoumani, who was boosted by the support of the opposition Juwa party, which had no candidate in the second round.

Assoumani, who comes from Grande Comore, had after the first round secured the backing of Juwa, an opposition party whose own candidate dropped out. Assoumani’s Convention for the Renewal of Comoros (CRC) party is the second-biggest opposition group after Juwa.

Comoros’ system was established in 2001 after more than 20 coups or attempted ones, four of which were successful, in the years following independence from France in 1975.

AFP