The ruling party in Comoros wins the legislative elections, but the opposition denies the results

Opposition parties either skipped the vote or disputed the results, citing fraud, but the electoral commission declared the governing party in Comoros won parliamentary elections this week with a landslide victory.

The ruling party won 28 of the 33 parliamentary seats in Sunday’s election, the Independent National Election Commission (CENI) said late Tuesday.

A 2023 legislative amendment increased the number of seats in the outgoing parliament to 24, with the ruling party holding 22 of them.

The main opposition Juwa party termed the results a farce and abstained from the election on the small Indian Ocean archipelago due to concerns about its transparency.

“Electoral fraud and ballot stuffing were exposed in broad daylight by Comorians boycotting the electoral masquerade,” stated Hassane Ahmed el-Barwane, secretary general of Juwa.

The opposition parties who did take part in the voting, according to their spokesperson Abdallah Mohamed, claimed the results were unacceptable and the vote was tainted by anomalies.

“Our representatives who opposed ballot stuffing were expelled from the polling stations,” Mohamed said to reporters on Monday.

“There is no truth to the opposition’s charges of fraud. Fakridine Mahamoud, the minister of elections, told Reuters on Tuesday that if people feel aggrieved, they should submit the proof to court.

On Sunday, President Azali Assoumani rejected the fraud claims shortly after he cast his ballot.

Assoumani is accused by his detractors of dictatorial governance and of laying the groundwork for his eldest son, Nour El-Fath, to succeed him when his mandate concludes in 2029.

Since the Comoros, which has a population of only 800,000, acquired independence from France in 1975, there have been over a dozen coup attempts.