Marred election may cause further instability

The Comoros could be plunged into further political crisis with opposition presidential candidates calling for the annulment of this weekend's election. A diplomatic source told IRIN that by late Wednesday the electoral commission had still not pronounced on the election. The presidential poll, to elect the first president of the Comoro Union, was marred by low voter turnout, isolated incidents of violence and the withdrawal of two opposition candidates. The source told IRIN that the electoral commission was supposed to have made a decision on Tuesday. The poll has been denounced as not free and fair by the Comoro national elections monitoring body. In some instances polling stations were vandalised and "security forces may not have created the conditions for people to [exercise] the right to vote," said the source. Voter turnout was affected by the withdrawal at the last minute of the two candidates. The election became a one-horse race which Comoro military leader Colonel Azali Assoumani appears to have won. Assoumani, who had grabbed power in a coup in 1999, stepped down in January to stand for election. Voting took place on all three of the Comoro Union islands - Grande Comore, Anjouan and Moheli - but turnout was low. Provisional numbers show that turnout on Grande Comore was 44.4 percent of registered voters, while on Anjouan 33.4 percent and in Moheli 35 percent of registered voters turned out. Preliminary results show that Assoumani won over 80 percent of the vote. "It was mostly his supporters who voted, a small number of voters who had not heard of the withdrawal of the other candidates, Mahamoud Mradadi and Said Aly Kemal, did cast votes for their candidates. "This was because of the last minute nature of their withdrawal ... Mradadi and Kemal were still on the ballot when voters went to the polls on Sunday," the source said. Mradadi and Kemal had alleged that the voters' roll was fraudulent. They also argued that the poll should not have gone ahead as the Inter-Comorian Agreement provided for the islands to have their own elections before the union elections. Grande Comore's constitution is yet to be approved and local elections have not been held, the two other islands have already approved constitutions and elected their own leaders.