Comoros: Lawyer petitions for Comorians living abroad to vote in elections

Will very many Comorians abroad soon be able to take part in the presidential elections in the archipelago? A Franco-Comorian lawyer has appeared before the court of a small archipelago in the Indian Ocean so that the diaspora can vote in the next election.

Elections for the President and Governor of the Comoros must take place no later than February next year. Comoros President Azali Assoumani will be a candidate to succeed him, his Comoros Renewal Convention (CRC) party announced in January.

Gold Malisa Said Soilihi, 39, a former municipal councilor in Marseille, France, home to a large Comorian community, said this Saturday before a Supreme Court chamber that the electoral code allows for such a diaspora vote, concerned that the device is not being implemented.

“The Electoral Code, promulgated in 2023, determines the application of this fundamental right,” the lawyer recalled during a short hearing.

The Comorian community in France is reported to number 300,000, more than half of whom live in Marseille. For comparison: according to the official forecast, about 870,000 people live on the three islands of the Comoros.

September 9 decision?

Therefore, Malisa Said Soilihi asked the court to “instruct and oblige the competent authorities to take all necessary measures to guarantee the registration of Comorian citizens living abroad on the electoral lists (…) for the next election dates.”

On August 20, she already filed an application with the court with a request “to note the violation of the fundamental rights of the diaspora, in particular, their suffrage.”

Attorney General Nurdin Abodo, in his speeches, asked the court to declare “the request inadmissible.” The judge, among other arguments, considered that “no provision gives the Court the power to issue an injunction to the competent authorities”, namely the state. The case has been adjourned until September 9.