MORONI: President Azali Assoumani of the Comoros won a fourth five-year term after being named the winner of Sunday’s election by the country’s electoral board on Tuesday. He faced five opponents. Assoumani has ruled the Indian Ocean archipelago nation since 1999, when he rose to power through a coup. He has now won three elections. Critics accuse his government of suppressing dissent, which it rejects. According to the results released by the national election commission late Tuesday, Assoumani received 62.97% of the vote. Since gaining independence from France in 1975, the country of over 800,000 people has seen approximately 20 coups or attempted coups. It is also a major source of irregular migration to the nearby French island of Mayotte. “We cannot talk about results because there was no election,” Mouigni Baraka Said Soilihi, one of Assoumani’s opponents, said after the results were released, adding that the election had been marred by irregularities such as closing polls before the legally authorized hour. Other opposition leaders claimed on Sunday that ballot stuffing had taken place. They had called for a boycott of the election, accusing the commission of favouring the ruling party. The commission disputes the charges. Assoumani’s campaign director, Houmed Msaidie, also refuted the charges and urged the accusers to show evidence.
