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Police kidnap injured policeman in Monday's clashes. By GIANLUIGI GUERCIA (AFP)
Counting the votes cast in the first round of the presidential election in the Comoros continued on Tuesday as tensions mounted between the president seeking re-election, Azali Assoumani, and his rivals who accuse him of fraud.
Twelve people were injured on Monday when police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at opposition candidates and supporters as they were crossing the capital, Moroni, to protest alleged irregularities.
Interior Minister Mohamed "Kiki" Daoudou said the count, underway at the National Assembly in Moroni, would be completed on Tuesday.
"We have authorities that have gone crazy and shot at the very candidates who won the ballot box," said opposition candidate, Juwa, Mahamoudou Ahamada.
Comoros President Azali Assoumani voted Sunday. By GIANLUIGI GUERCIA (AFP) But Daoudou insisted that Ahamada and his allies "want to create disorder in Moroni, there is no question that this is allowed."
"We will do everything necessary to guarantee the peace and stability of the country," he told AFP.
Heavily armed soldiers were deployed in several key locations in the capital with orders to prevent unrest.
The Union of the opposition, the main rival of Mr. Azali, 60 years old, alleges that the irregularities noted Sunday in several polling stations by the electoral commission constitute a "coup d'etat" and call for public "resistance".
An Electoral Commission official told AFP Sunday that a dozen stalls had been vandalized during the polls.
"A climate of panic"
According to witnesses, several stuffed urns were found on the island of Anjouan, a stronghold of the opposition.
Some observers from the opposition polling stations were also prevented from performing their duties, they added.
"The security forces have taken a stand for a government that has lost its legitimacy," said Ahamada of Juwa.
The count began Sunday night in the National Assembly under the custody of the police.
Official observers also criticized the polls.
"We (condemn) the incidents we witnessed that prevented voters from exercising their civil rights in conditions of calm," said a joint statement released by observers from the African Union. , Comesa and East Africa and the Force waiting for East Africa.
Map of Comoros Islands. By Kun TIAN (AFP) Azali's campaign director, Houmed Msaidie, described as "pathetic" allegations of opposition election fraud, accusing them of creating "a climate of panic to invalidate the electoral process".
"If there has been fraud, they should go to the competent authorities," he told AFP.
Some 300,000 voters were eligible in the archipelago of the Indian Ocean, which has a two-round voting system for the election of the president.
The Muslim-majority nation of 800,000 is one of the world's poorest and most coup-ridden states – more than 20 attempts to seize power have been successfully attempted or won since the independence of the country. France in 1975.
The Supreme Court has banned some of Azali's main rivals, including former president Ahmed Abdallah Sambi, accused of corruption, from running for office.
Azali organized the poll after the referendum vote of the Comorans, boycotted by the opposition, in favor of extending the presidential term of office from five years to two.
The change upset the fragile balance of power established in 2001, aimed at ending the separatist crises in Anjouan and Moheli and ending the never-ending cycle of coups d'état.
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