A Comorian diplomat on Monday said parliamentary elections scheduled for early next year would resolve the ongoing confusion over administrative control between government departments in the archipelago. Since presidential elections in April, a power struggle has ensued between newly elected Grand Comore President Abdou Soule Elbak and Union President Azali Assoumani on how they would share rule of the island. Under the devolution process, the islands - Moheli, Anjouan and Grande Comore - govern most of their own affairs with their own presidents. Overall, Assoumani's union government in the capital Moroni controls defence, foreign affairs and economic policy. Soule Elbak has called for equal control over Grande Comore's financial sector. In a move to diffuse political tensions, Azali suggested that meetings be held twice a month between all four of the archipelago's leaders. "The relationship between Mr Elbak and President Assoumani has improved considerably. There is an understanding that cooperation is necessary for stability in the country. But there still is this obstacle of who controls what. This is unlikely to be resolved soon. We are hoping that the parliamentary elections in March will hopefully clarify this problem," Bacar Salim, Comoros chargé d'affaires in South Africa, told IRIN. Salim added that while social service ministries such as education and welfare continued to operate under the new system, there was "a lot of confusion over who controlled the money in the country". The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in July said it would be impossible to draw up an economic programme for the archipelago in the short term until the current political situation was clarified.
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