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Police kidnap injured policeman in Monday's clashes. By GIANLUIGI GUERCIA (AFP)
Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets Monday to disperse more than 100 opposition supporters while the Comoros awaited the election results. President Azali Assoumani is being tipped to win, AFP correspondents said.
Two people were injured – a protester and a plainclothes policeman – when the group started walking towards the Independence Square, the capital, Moroni.
The country is awaiting the results of Sunday's presidential elections, for which the opposition's claim was fraught with difficulties.
The opposition Union, Azali's main rival, claimed that the irregularities found Sunday by the electoral commission in several polling stations constituted a "coup d'etat" and called for a public "resistance".
An Electoral Commission official told AFP Sunday that a dozen stalls had been vandalized during the polls.
According to witnesses, several stuffed urns were found on the island of Anjouan, a stronghold of the opposition.
Comoros President Azali Assoumani voted Sunday. By GIANLUIGI GUERCIA (AFP) Some observers from the opposition polling stations were also prevented from performing their duties, they added.
The count began Sunday night in the National Assembly under the custody of the police.
"We counted (the ballot papers) of Moroni and its surroundings," an AFP official told AFP.
The commission was waiting for boxes from Anjouan and Moheli, two of the three islands of the archipelago, the source said, adding that the results would be published within five days legally required.
"Some problems – it's not a surprise"
Police prevented Sunday opposition candidates from accessing the National Assembly. By GIANLUIGI GUERCIA (AFP) Seven opposition candidates accompanied by dozens of supporters marched to the National Assembly of Anjouan to "prevent the ballot boxes from joining Moroni," said Mahamoudou Ahamada, opposition party candidate. Juwa.
Police quickly dispersed the group.
"We, the candidates, declare that the current government is illegitimate … call on the population to resist and mobilize against it," said Sunday the former vice president of the country and president of the Union from the opposition, Soihili Mohamed.
Azali's campaign director, Houmed Msaidie, called the opposition claims "pathetic", accusing them of creating "a climate of panic that would invalidate the electoral process".
"If there has been fraud, they should go to the competent authorities," he told AFP.
Azali minimized the incidents.
"It was said that there were problems – this is not a surprise," he said after voting in a school in Mitsoudje, on the island Grand Comore, adding that he was confident for the win.
Some 300,000 voters were called to vote in the archipelago of the Indian Ocean, which has a two-round voting system for the election of the president.
Map of Comoros Islands. By Kun TIAN (AFP) 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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