Voting commenced in Comoros on Sunday for an election anticipated to grant President Azali Assoumani a fourth five-year term.
Five opponents challenged him in a vote that some opposition figures opted to boycott.
The polls opened at 8am for the 338,940 registered voters, concluding at 6pm. Despite the nation’s history of coups since gaining independence from France in 1975, concerns about irregular migration to the nearby French island of Mayotte linger.
Allegations of election commission bias by certain opposition leaders have led to a call for a boycott, countered by the commission’s assurance of a transparent process.
“I am delighted with this anchoring of democracy in our country,” Assoumani told reporters after voting in his home town of Mitsoudjé, adding that he hoped for victory in the first round.
The former army officer first came to power in a coup in 1999. He has since won three elections and has served as the chair of the African Union for the past year.
He won the 2019 election with 60% of the vote, breaching the 50% mark required to avoid a run-off. Critics say since then his government has cracked down on dissent, an accusation it denies.
Assoumani’s opponents include a former interior minister and Salim Issa, a medical doctor and flagbearer for Juwa, former president Ahmed Abdallah Sambi’s party.
“We welcome the conduct of the vote. We hope that everything will continue calmly,” Issa wrote on social media from Foumbouni, his hometown in the south of Comoros.
Sambi is now behind bars after being sentenced to life in prison in 2022 for high treason related to accusations of corruption. Political protests have been repeatedly banned for security reasons.
Comoros changed its constitution in June 2018 to remove a requirement that the presidency rotate among its three main islands every five years. This allowed Assoumani to seek re-election.
