It was a politically agitated Sunday that the Comorians experienced with three official declarations of candidacy for the presidential election on January 14. Mouigni Baraka Saïd Soilihi, former governor of the island of Grande Comore, and Mohamed Daoudou, former Minister of the Interior under Azali Assoumani for five years, have positioned themselves on the side of the opposition. The third candidacy is that of the current president, Azali Assoumani, candidate for his own succession for a second term.
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With our correspondent in Moroni, Abdallah Mzembaba
“ I’m not better or smarter than you, you just agreed to make me your candidate “. It is in these terms that the president Azali Assoumani formalized his candidacy on the island of Anjouan on Sunday, although there was little doubt about it in the country. Azali has been in office since returning to power in 2016.
On the side of his adversaries, we find his former and all-powerful Minister of the Interior, former government spokesperson, Mohamed Daoudou. Thanked in 2021, he joined the ranks of the Comorian opposition. Daoudou will wear the colors of the Orange party, now the only opposition party to have deputies in the National Assembly.
Third candidate to declare himself: Mouigni Baraka Saïd Soilihi of the RDCE party, led the island of Grande Comore from 2011 to 2016. This election will be his third attempt to reach the supreme office.
Five other candidates have already made themselves known, including that of the main opposition party: the former president’s Juwa Ahmed Abdallah Sambi, in detention since 2018 and sentenced to life imprisonment for high treason in the so-called economic citizenship affair.