Yearbook 2016
Comoros. As the constitution stipulates that the presidential post should rotate between the three largest islands, the first round of presidential elections was held only at Ngazidja (Grande Comore). In this first round, which took place in February, Vice President Mohamed Ali Soilihi got the most votes with Mouigni Baraka Said Soilihi, Governor of the Island, and former President Azali Assoumani in second and third place. These three went on to the second round of elections, in which all the voters in the country had the right to participate. A total of 19 out of 25 candidates appealed to the Constitutional Court with complaints of irregularities but the court approved the election.
The current population of Comoros is 869,612. The election day in April was tense and in its turn violent, especially at Nzwani (Anjouan). Here, the election was forced in some constituencies because about 6,000 people were prevented from voting. However, according to thereligionfaqs, the Comoros re-election in May did not change the fact that Assoumani took a tight victory with 41% of the vote against 40% for Mohamed Ali Soilihi. The then commander-in-chief Azali Assoumani took power in a bloodless coup in 1999, was elected president in 2002 and resigned before the 2006 election.
COMOROS
A 1988 estimate raises the population of the Islamic Federal Republic of Comoros to 425,000 residents. Due to the strong demographic pressure (density 228 residents per km 2; estimated time of doubling of the population: 24 years) is matched by an extreme scarcity of resources, limited to agricultural, forestry and fishing products, and a high degree of dependence on foreign countries, as regards not only industrial products, but also food (rice: 34% of the value of imports in 1985). The trade balance is chronically in deficit; in 1985 vanilla and cloves contributed to 85% of the export value. In 1980, 53% of the active population was employed in agriculture, 7.3% in the industrial and construction sectors. Three airports are served by regular flights, including Hahaya International Airport on the island of Grande Comore, which opened in 1975.
History. – On May 13, 1978, a group of mercenaries overthrew the ” secular and socialist ” regime of Ali Soilih and, after a short transition, restored former president Ahmed Abdallah to power, already overthrown by A. Soilih himself in August 1975 Ahmed Abdallah, supported by the traditionalist notable, abandoned all the modernizing ambitions of his predecessor to establish an authoritarian regime strongly contested by the opposition. In this climate, the murder of A. Abdallah took place on November 27, 1989, in circumstances that were never clear. He was succeeded by Said Mohamed Djohar, elected president of the Republic in March 1990, who initiated a democratic change. Close relations have been maintained between the Comoros and France, but the question of Mayotte remains unsolved, the island which, refused independence in 1975, in 1976 it obtained the status of ” territorial collectivity ” under French sovereignty. In all these years the Comorian government has continued to proclaim its rights to Mayotte as a territory belonging to the ” Comorian community ”.