In Africa’s first presidential election of the year on January 14, Comoros President Azali Assoumani is running for a fourth term, enabled by a controversial 2018 referendum that has enabled him to sidestep presidential term limits.
The ensuing Constitution dismantled the 2001 Fomboni Agreement, which had ushered in over 15 years of political stability in the archipelago of 880,000 people. The Agreement enshrined a power-sharing formula that saw the presidency rotate after a single presidential term among the three main islands: Grand Comore, Anjouan, and Moheli.
The landmark Agreement ended an era in which Comoros suffered 20 coups since its independence in 1975.
Assoumani’s evasion of term limits has eroded that democratic progress and stability. The 2018 Constitution, furthermore, consolidated power under the executive by removing the offices of three vice presidents, each representing one of the three islands.