Embattled President elect of Anjouan, Mohamed Bacar would be sworn in tomorrow Wednesday after winning Sunday’s presidential election which has been condemned as illegal. Prior to Sunday’s vote, the African Union issued a communiqué calling for a postponement because of what the AU referred to as security concerns. Sunday’s election came amid growing tensions in the Indian Ocean islands, where forces loyal to Bacar killed two federal soldiers last month and police shot three people last week.
Idi Nidhom is the vice president of the Comoro Islands. From the capital Moroni, he told VOA he does not recognize Mohamed Bacar as the elected president of Anjouan.
“The election in Anjouan was postponed by a decree of the president of the Union to June 17th in order to have the forces from the African Union to be deployed there, and have the security needed so that we can be sure of fair and transparent elections in that island,” Nidhom pointed out.
He said the former president of Anjouan flouted not only the decree by the Unions president, but also the communiqué from the African Union.
“Now Mohamed Bacar, the former president of Anjouan preferred to hold this election Sunday. He was the only candidate to run and he proclaimed himself elected. The African Union issued a communiqué on Saturday supporting the decree of the president asking the Anjouanese authorities not to hold that election yesterday (Sunday). So his election for us and for the international community is null and void,” he said.
Nidhom reiterated Sunday’s election was in bad taste and should not be taken seriously.
“There was no election at all in Anjouan. Keeping in mind that seven or six, I don’t know how many candidates were ready to run, but there was no participation at all, may be his supporters went to the polls. The African Union by its communiqué of Saturday stated clearly that it would not accept that election, it would not recognize the election,” Nidhom noted.
He said the embattled Anjouan President Mohamed Bacar should be removed from power.
“We don’t have the forces to remove him, but believe me the day we have the forces whether out from the African Union when we have the mandate or our own forces, when we will be strong enough to do so, we will remove him by all means,” he said.
Nidhom dismissed as nonsense an advisor of Mohamed Bacar who suggested a suspension of all the elections in the Island instead of only that of Anjouan.
“Yes that is his opinion. That person is supporting Mohamed Bacar, a separatist and a rebel and that person who in 2006 was defeated in the Unions elections for the president of the Comoros, is in a bad position to say so. We thought to postpone the elections for the three islands. But in the grand Comoros and in Moheri, the situation is quite different from Anjouan,” Nidhom noted.
He said the security situation in the rest of the Islands were better than that of the Anjouan, and that is why he said elections were allowed.
“The situation here is very quite different from Anjouan. The situation here is very quiet…we have consulted the president and the constitutional court, and every one agreed that the situation here is different from Anjouan and there was no reason that we shouldn’t have held the elections here,” he said.
