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Coromos Islanders Weigh Controversial Referendum

by VOA News

   A controversial referendum Monday in the Comoros could scrap the tiny
   southeast African country's power rotation system and end the
   single-term limit for the presidency.

   Opponents claim the referendum on constitutional change is illegal and
   designed to allow President Azali Assoumani to seek two more five-year
   terms instead of stepping down when his current mandate ends in 2021.

   Currently, the three main islands of the Comoros -- an Indian Ocean
   archipelago located between Mozambique and Madagascar and home to about
   800,000 people -- are supposed to rotate power every five years.

   But Assoumani contends that limits stability, and he also wants the
   authority to drop the three vice presidencies. One vice president,
   Moustoidrane Abdou, survived an assassination attempt July 22 when the
   car in which he was riding was struck by gunfire from a passing
   motorcycle.

   The country has suffered more than 20 coups or coup attempts since
   winning independence from France in 1975. Assoumani, an ex-military
   officer, took power in a 1999 coup and won a five-year term as
   president in 2002 in the country's first multiparty vote. He won again
   in 2016.

   Monday's referendum also would drop secularism and make Islam the state
   religion. The country is 99 percent Sunni Muslim.

   The Coromos has high levels of inequality, with almost a fifth of the
   population living in poverty, the [1]World Bank reports. The country's
   economy centers on fishing and agriculture, depending heavily on
   exports of vanilla, cloves and a perfume essence called ylang ylang,
   according to the Central Intelligence Agency's [2]"World Factbook."

References

   1. http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/comoros/overview
   2. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cn.html