Voters in Comoros cast their ballots in a presidential election on Sunday, Africa's first of 2024. Incumbent President Azali Assoumani said he was confident of a first-round victory, while the opposition alleged electoral fraud.
Five candidates are standing against Assoumani to lead the Indian Ocean archipelago, with several opposition figures urging voters to boycott.
Polls were due to close at 6pm local time after a delayed start to voting in many areas.
Polling stations opened at least an hour and a half late, reported RFI's correspondent David Baché, with voting materials arriving behind schedule.
Some stations were moved at the last minute, he said, leaving voters unsure where to cast their ballots.
The president's opponents accused those in power of deliberately obstructing voting, claiming that ballot boxes had been stuffed and access to polling stations restricted in opposition strongholds.
At a joint press conference by all five opposition candidates, challenger Mouigni Baraka Said Soilihi declared: "As in 2019, we are witnessing an electoral fraud by Azali Assoumani with the army's complicity."
Incumbent confident
The 2019 election saw Assoumani elected in the first round with 60 percent of the vote – a result he was confident of repeating.
"There is confidence that I will win the first round. It is God who will decide and the Comoran people," the president said after voting in his hometown of Mitsoudje, just outside the capital, Moroni.
"If I win the first round, it will save time and money."
Assoumani – who has been accused of jailing or sending opponents into exile – dismissed reports of irregularities from the opening of the polls, saying he had "not heard about it".
"You need proof," he said, claiming that the low turnout was due to bad weather.
'Crackdowns on dissent'
Assoumani seized power in a coup in 1999 and was first elected president in 2002. He stepped down after one term but reclaimed the presidency in an election in 2016.
In 2018 he changed the constitution to allow himself to run for a fourth term, a move that triggered widespread protests and a rebel uprising on one of the archipelago's three main islands.
The army put down the fighting and protests have been regularly banned since then.
Since Assoumani was re-elected in 2019, observers say he has become increasingly authoritarian.
"Assoumani's latest term has been marked by crackdowns on dissent and curtailments of press freedoms," according to the US-based Africa Center for Strategic Studies, which describes the intimidation of journalists and detention of opposition figures.
French interests
Nearly 340,000 people are eligible to vote in Comoros, which declared independence from France in 1975.
Provisional results are expected on Monday at the earliest. If no candidate wins outright, a second round is set for 25 February.
Sunday's election in Comoros will also be notable for France because of its proximity to Mayotte, a French island territory that lies about 100 kilometres south-east of Comoros.
Mayotte has seen an influx of immigrants from Comoros and Assoumani has refused to repatriate thousands of Comorans who made their way to the French island, or to accept financial compensation to take in undocumented Comorans from Mayotte.
An estimated 300,000 Comorans have emigrated to France, but they are not allowed to vote in the presidential contest.
(with newswires)
