Smaller government, bigger tensions in the Comoros

Thinning out the top-heavy governance system of Comoros is creating tensions in the Indian Ocean island state, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in its October 2009 country report.

More than 90 percent of voters in a May 2009 referendum favoured constitutional reform to reduce the complex governance system that costs one of the world's poorest nations about 80 percent of its gross domestic product.

The 2001 Constitution, known as the Fomboni Accords, was designed to put an end to more than 20 coups and secession attempts since independence from France in 1975, earning Comoros the nickname of "the coup-coup islands".

Besides a rotating presidency for the over-arching Union government, each of the three islands - Grand Comore, Moheli and Anjouan - had a separate president, parliament, and many other prerogatives, making few resources available for poverty alleviation, health and education.

Constitutional reform will downscale the island presidents to governors, and ministers will become councillors, in the hope of shaving between "10 and 15 percent" off annual government expenditure.

"Tensions between the Union and island authorities remain, fuelled by the latter's reluctance to cede more power to the central government," said the IMF report. "These risks are being addressed through determined actions to enhance inter-island cooperation."

go/he