By Assoumani, 65, who held the rotating chairperson role of the African Union for the past year, will face five competitors. Other opposition leaders have called for a boycott, accusing the electoral commission of favoring the ruling party.
The electoral commission has denied this and said the election will be transparent.
Regional observer missions, including from the African Union, said the last election in 2019 was riddled with irregularities and lacked credibility.
The earlier vote followed constitutional reforms that removed a requirement that the presidency rotate among the country’s three main islands every five years, and thus allowed Assoumani to seek re-election. The changes sparked months of sometimes violent protests.
The Comoros Islands – Anjouan, Grande Comore, and Moheli – have endured years of grinding poverty and political turmoil, including about 20 coups or attempted coups, since independence from France in 1975. The country is a major source of irregular migration to the nearby French island of Mayotte, which was historically part of the Comoros.
Source: Aljazeera
