Comoros Vote Confirms Ruling Party Control Over Parliament

Moroni, Comoros, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Feb, 2020 ) :A second round of Comoros legislative elections has confirmed President Azali Assoumani's ruling party majority after opposition parties boycotted the vote, electoral authorities said on Monday.

Azali secured a second term in March last year in the tiny Indian Ocean archipelago, which has struggled for years with political instability including coups.

The four main opposition parties consider Azali's government illegitimate because of suspected voting irregularities and had boycotted the legislative ballot.

After obtaining 18 of the 24 seats in the Federal Assembly in the first ballot on January 20, the Convention for the Renewal of the Comoros (CRC) party won four more in the second ballot on Sunday, according to official results.

The Orange party of Interior Minister Mohamed Daoudou, known as Kiki, won the last two seats.

Opposition parties refused to participate in the legislative elections because they said there were not enough guarantees for the vote to be "transparent, free and democratic".

Azali himself first seized power in a coup against an acting head of state in 1999 and was returned to office until 2006 in a multi-party vote.

That year, power was transferred peacefully for the first time since independence from former colonial ruler France in 1975.

Azali's critics consider that he has taken an authoritarian turn, with reforms leaving him a possibility of staying in power until 2029.