Comoran president wins controversial vote extending his powers

Azali Assoumani (R), president of the Comoros, shakes hands during a constitutional referendum on July 30, 2018 at the Mitsoudje polling station, near of Moroni, Comoros archipelago off the east coast of Africa. Voters in the Comoros went to the polls on July 30 in a politically explosive referendum that could change the constitution and allow President Azali Assoumani to govern beyond 2021, his current term of office. (TONY KARUMBA / AFP)

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(AFP) – The voters of Comoros overwhelmingly supported controversial constitutional reforms that would allow President Azali Assoumani to run for a new mandate, An election official said Monday after a referendum boycotted by the opposition.

The archipelago of the Indian Ocean has a long history of instability and risk of unrest after Assoumani banned the protests and the opposition described the vote as "illegal".

"I will give you the national results …" Yes, "172,240 votes, or 92.74%." No, "13,338 votes, or 7.26%," the president of Comoros The National Electoral Commission (CENI), Ahmed Mohamed Djaza, said at a briefing in the capital Moroni [19659006] the participation rate was 63.9%, he added.

The poll was held against the background of rising tensions and the vote was interrupted by a "In the majority of polling stations visited, there were fewer than 20 voters waiting to vote," he said. AFP Jules Hoareau, member of the East Africa Observer Mission waiting. "

" But when we came back, we observed a sudden stream of ballots at the polls. It does not make sense. "

Unidentified badailants attacked the Hankounou polling station in Moroni with a knife, destroying two urns and hospitalizing a policeman.

-" The promise of change? " –

"What a result! A fake vote, fabricated figures – this is how President Azali consults the public, "said opposition party general secretary Juwa, Ahmed el-Barwane

but Soilihi Ali Said, a voter in his forties in the capital Moroni who Monday was virtually shut down by a general strike, said that he voted "yes" because there is the promise of change with new faces and a state less inflated. "

According to the constitution adopted in 2001, Comoros " Three main islands to balance the policy in the country subject to war.

After the vote of Monday this arrangement will be abandoned and replaced by a president who will be elected for a five-year term, renewable for a term.

Assoumani will also obtain the power to abolish the three vice-presidencies of the country, which is another measure of Balance of the constitution previous.

Islam will be proclaimed state religion for the first time, after the vote. Ninety-nine percent of Comorians are Sunni Muslims

A businessman who requested anonymity told AFP that he had not not voted because he "smelled a scam".

In the capital Moroni there was only a handful of posters The opposition did not participate in the process and the turnout appeared low in several offices vote of the capital, testified the journalists of the AFP.

But the official media insisted that there was no apocalypse. The vote was held without major incident.

In the run-up to the election, one of the vice-presidents, Moustoidrane Abdou, escaped an badbadination attempt when his car was attacked by gunmen on a motorcycle

He promised to withdraw when he lost the vote, according to his spokesman Mohamed Ismailla

The Comoros – – a group of three islands between Mozambique and Madagascar and the 39, one of the poorest countries in the world – has suffered repeated beatings and political unrest since the independence of France in 1975.

Assoumani, a 59-year-old former colonel, was president between 1999 and 2002 He came to power after ousting Acting President Tadjidine Ben Said Mbadonde

. He won the country's first multiparty elections in 2002, retiring in 2006 to democratically cede power to Ahmed Abdallah Sambi. In May 2016, he returned to the presidency after an election marked by violence and allegations of electoral irregularities.

In April of this year, Assoumani suspended the Constitutional Court declaring that she was incompetent.

© Agence France-Presse