Violence flares in Comoros following opposition claims of election rigging by President Azali Assoumani

Africa’s 2024 election season — comprising 19 presidential and general polls — got off to an unpromising and alarming start this week. After Sunday’s re-election of President Azali Assoumani to an effective fifth term, violent protests against the result broke out in Moroni, the capital of Comoros.

The government responded by imposing a night-time curfew and deploying the army on the streets. The United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights appealed for calm and for the authorities to show restraint in dealing with the protests. 

“Comoros is experiencing an insurrectionary situation,” the five losing presidential candidates said in a joint statement. This was “fuelled by a spontaneous reaction of indignation” among young people against Assoumani’s perceived rigging of his victory. The candidates called for nationwide protests on 19 January after prayers. 

The riots were sparked when the Independent National Electoral Commission (Ceni) announced on Tuesday that Assoumani had won 62.97% of votes in the first round, avoiding a run-off. The most astonishing statistic was that only 16.3% of registered voters turned out to elect a president. So Assoumani will assume a mandate to govern with just 33,209 of his people formally backing him. 

The excuses offered included tropical cyclones and general voter apathy. But these did not explain why the turnout in the simultaneous vote for the three island governors had, on average, been over 50%. 

At the very least, that suggests a massive vote of no confidence in Assoumani and the integrity of the presidential poll. At worst, it’s hard to avoid suspicion of vote destruction, especially because Ceni had already estimated a turnout of over 60% on Sunday night, a diplomat told ISS Today. 

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“How can they maintain that out of four voters who turned up at the polls, only one put his ballot paper in the box, when the presidential and governors’ ballots were harmonised?” the five losing candidates asked in their statement. Ibrahim Mzimba, former foreign minister and now a strategy head for the opposition, denounced the “inconsistency and contradiction of the figures announced”. 

Some opposition parties had called for a boycott of the polls. And many Comorians, even if they didn’t formally endorse a stay away, had nonetheless told Radio France International they didn’t believe in an electoral process that was a foregone conclusion. 

The African Union’s (AU) election observation mission issued a typically non-committal interim report, saying the polls had been “peaceful and without major incidents”. The International Organisation of the Francophonie noted in its interim report that voting had largely been “free, reliable and transparent”. Both missions nevertheless suggested how the government, Ceni and the parties could improve future elections and heal social and political divisions. 

The five losing candidates “rejected in toto” the AU assessment, saying “it denotes culpable complicity” in the rigging. 

The opposition indicated its intention to refer the matter to the courts to “put an end to this masquerade which violates the sovereign choice of the Comorian people”. But few cherished any hope that the Supreme Court would help, as it’s widely considered a servant of Assoumani’s interests.

Controversial presidency