Cost of democracy thwarts development

The expense of maintaining democracy in Comoros is proving such a burden that the government is contemplating wholesale changes, possibly fomenting the very divisions its complex governance system was designed to thwart.

The three-island state introduced the constitution in 2001 - a direct consequence of the islands of Moheli and Anjouan unilaterally declaring independence in 1997 - in a bid to end the cycle of coups and secession attempts that has plagued the archipelago since it gained independence from France in 1975.

A complex electoral system provides for a semi-autonomous government and president for each of the three islands - Grand Comore, Moheli and Anjouan - with a rotating presidency for the over-arching Union government. The various islands each have a separate parliament, a president and many other prerogatives, which account for about 80 percent of the central government's annual budget.

Since independence the archipelago has suffered more than 20 coups and secession attempts, the most recent of which was put down earlier this year by African Union troops after Anjouan's strongman, Mohamed Bacar, reinstalled himself as the island's president following disputed elections in 2007.

The semi-autonomous system in the archipelago also presents it with a catch-22 situation: the country's development is hamstrung by the cost of administering its democracy, which was introduced to negate conflict.

Comoros has a debt burden of US$297 million - 63 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) - and slipped from 132 in 2004 to 134 in 2006 in the UN Development Programme's Human Development Index.

"In a poor country like ours, where there is almost no export, we cannot allow ourselves to have so many institutions - it is simply too expensive," information minister Abdourahim Said Bakar told IRIN.
 

Right now we have a parliament on each island, and we are running one country with the cost of four countries. We have to reduce the number of these institutions

"Right now we have a parliament on each island, a president on each island, and we are running one country with the cost of four countries. We have to reduce the number of these institutions," he said.

After Anjouan's electoral crisis the government proposed pushing through several reforms to promote sustainable development, attract foreign investors, reduce poverty and streamline government.

Bakar said, "Changing the constitution is a very important step towards the stabilisation of the country," and that a special committee was working on a draft document.

Resistance to change

It is unlikely that reforming the democratic system will not meet with resistance in a country where government is easily the main employer and jobs are scarce.

Moheli Island's president, Mohamed Ali Said, has threatened to boycott work on the new governance proposal, although Anjouan's president, Moussa Toybou, has pledged full cooperation.

"It will not be an easy process - we may call a referendum if an agreement with the opposition will not be met," Bakar said.

The fractious history of the archipelago, which was first settled by traders 1,000 years ago, then became a haven for pirates, and was eventually annexed by France in 1904, will loom large over the need to simplify and reduce the costs of governance, against the dangers of sparking renewed inter-island conflict.

Opiah Kumah, the UN Development Programme representative in Comoros, told IRIN: "The position that we endorse is that all Comorians should sit down and seek, through dialogue, to minimise conflict and promote sustainable development."

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