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Sunday 21 Feb 2016 - 13:12 Makkah mean time-12-5-1437
Comorians go to polling stations to elect new president (AFP image)
Moroni (IINA) – Voters in the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Comoros began Sunday casting their ballots for a new president from a crowded field of 25 candidates, with a struggling economy and poor infrastructure high on the agenda, AFP reported.
Polling stations in the country of less than one million people officially opened at 0400 GMT, although some were delayed by the late arrival of voting materials.
Only voters on Grande Comore Island will cast their ballots on Sunday under an unusual electoral system that decrees the president is selected on a rotating basis from one of the three major islands.
The system was established in 2001 in a bid to bring stability after more than 20 coups, or attempted coups, in the decades following independence from France in 1975.
Among the prominent candidates are Vice President Mohamed Ali Soilihi, governor of Grande Comore Mouigni Baraka, and Azali Assoumani, who led a coup in 1999 and is a two-time former president.
"Real efforts are being made by the election commission and international actors to ease any political or social tensions," said European Union representative Eduardo Campos Martins.
On Saturday, the electoral commission agreed to a request from 20 candidates to ban proxy voting, seen as a possible source of fraud. Voters will also be forbidden on Sunday from leaving the island's capital Moroni or moving between villages unless they have an official pass "to avoid double voting", the interior ministry announced.
AB/IINA
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