Assoumani trounced in legislative poll

Comoran President Azali Assoumani suffered a crushing defeat in the legislative elections held in the Indian Ocean archipelago at the weekend, according to provisional results released on Tuesday. The preliminary results of the first round of voting on Sunday, for the federal assembly, indicated that parties aligned to the three regional presidents took eight of the 18 elected seats in parliament, against two for the federal president's party. No candidate won a majority in the race for the remaining eight seats and a runoff has been scheduled for 25 April.

The three major islands of the archipelago - Grande Comore, Moheli and Anjouan - each have their own president and legislature, in addition to the federal president and parliament. In last month's elections for local assemblies on each of the country's three autonomous islands, Azali's supporters ended up with just 10 seats out of a total of 55. "We are very pleased with the results, but we have to wait and see what the second round produces. All we can say now is that the results after the first round of voting show that the people are interested in retaining their autonomy and do not want a federal president to have all the power," Grand Comore, President Abdou Elbak, told IRIN.

The legislative polls, delayed for more than a year by the controversy over constitutional powers, are the last step in a process of regionally mediated national reconciliation that will unite the islands in a federal system.