MORONI (Reuters) – Comoros will hold elections to its 33-seat parliament on Jan. 12, according to a decree published on Saturday, although opposition parties have said they will boycott the poll.
The Indian Ocean archipelago, with a population of about 800,000, last had parliamentary polls in January 2020.
In January incumbent President Azali Assoumani was re-elected for another five-year term, but the opposition rejected the results, alleging instances of ballot stuffing and of voting being ended before the official closing time.
The government denied the claims.
“We are not ready to take part in legislative elections until we know what is going to happen,” Salim Issa Abdillah, leader of the opposition JUWA party, who stood against Assoumani in the last election, told Reuters.
“We will boycott (the elections) … we do not trust Azali Assoumani because no matter what commitments he makes, he will not respect them.”
Orange, another opposition party, has also said it will not participate in the poll because the president had re-appointed the current head of the electoral body, Idrissa Said, whom they accuse of favouring the ruling Convention for the Renewal of the Comoros (CRC) party.
Said denies the allegations.
Assoumani’s opponents accuse him of authoritarian excesses and suspect him of wanting to prepare his eldest son, Nour El-fath, to replace him in 2029 when his current term ends.
Assoumani has been ruling Comoros since 1999 when he came to power through a coup. He has since won three elections.
(Reporting by Abdou Moustoifa; Editing by Elias Biryabarema and David Holmes)
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