Comoros: a lawyer files a request for Comorians living abroad to be able to vote in the elections

2023-09-02 22:28:37

Will the very many Comorians abroad soon be able to participate in the election of the president of the archipelago? A Franco-Comorian lawyer pleaded before the justice of the small archipelago in the Indian Ocean so that the diaspora can vote in the next elections.

Presidential and gubernatorial elections in the Comoros should be held next February at the latest. Comorian President Azali Assoumani will be a candidate for his own succession, his party, the Convention for the Renewal of the Comoros (CRC), announced in January.

Gold Maliza Said Soilihi, 39, former municipal councilor in Marseille (France), which hosts a large Comorian community, said this Saturday before a chamber of the Supreme Court that the electoral code provided for the possibility of this vote of the diaspora, worrying that this device is not applied.

“The electoral code promulgated in 2023 specifies the application of the modality of this fundamental right”, recalled the lawyer during a short hearing.

The Comorian community in France is said to number 300,000, more than half of whom reside in Marseille. By way of comparison, the three islands of the Comoros have around 870,000 inhabitants, according to an official projection.

A decision on September 9?

Maliza Said Soilihi therefore asked the court “to instruct and order the competent authorities to take all necessary measures to guarantee the registration of Comorian citizens residing abroad on the electoral rolls (…) for the next electoral deadlines”.

She had already lodged a request before the court on August 20 asking it to “note the violation of the fundamental rights of the diaspora, in particular their right to vote”.

Attorney General Nourdine Abodo, in his submissions, asked the Court to declare “the request inadmissible”. The magistrate considered, among other arguments, “that no provision gives the Court a mandate to issue an injunction to the competent authorities”, namely the State. The case is adjourned to September 9.