Sawt Falasteen - Comoros votes as controversial president predicts first round win

"There is confidence that I will win the first round. It is God who will decide and the Comoran people," the president said after voting in his hometown of Mitsoudje, just outside the capital Moroni.

"If I win the first round, it will save time and money," he added.

Assoumani, accused of jailing or sending opponents into exile, dismissed reports of irregularities from the opening of the polls saying he had "not heard about it".

"You need proof," he said adding that the low turnout was due to bad weather.

In the rain-drenched capital, several polling stations had faced delays and opened after the scheduled 7:00 am (0400 GMT) start.

Gendarmes and police had been deployed and waited for the first voters to arrive.

"The stations often begin late," an African Union observer told AFP.

In Ntsoudjini, an opposition candidate stronghold north of Moroni, voting had still not started by mid-morning.

"The vote has still not started on the grounds that there were no cars to transport the electoral materials. In fact, they are blocking the vote because the government knows that it is a region fiercely opposed to (the president)," candidate Mouigni Baraka Said Soilihi claimed.

Polls were to stay open until 6:00 pm (1500 GMT).

- Opposition boycott -

Assoumani, in power since 2016, extended his time in office through a controversial constitutional referendum in 2018 that removed presidential term limits.

Several opposition figures urged voters to boycott the election, in which five candidates are standing against 65-year-old Assoumani for the top job.

The president's arch-rival and highly popular predecessor, Ahmed Abdallah Sambi, was handed a life sentence in November 2022 on charges of high treason.

Suspicions of election fraud emerged due to the late publication of voting lists, with opposition leaders saying many people were still not sure where they were supposed to vote.

"We are challenging the improper nomination of voting station staffers, who are all supporters of the ruling party," Latuf Abdou of the opposition Juwa Party told AFP.

Juwa's Djaffar El Mansoib said opposition observers had been "prevented from accessing the polling stations in Anjouan", their traditional stronghold.

Security was beefed up for voting day, and some civil society groups said they would deploy observers at voting stations to "protect" the ballot.

- 'We are lucky' -

Nearly 340,000 people are eligible to vote in the predominantly Muslim nation, which declared independence from France in 1975 and where 45 percent of the population of roughly 900,000 lives below the poverty line, according to the World Bank.

Outright protests are rare on the country's three islands, and Assoumani's supporters are hoping for a repeat of the 2019 ballot, when he was elected in the first round with 60 percent of the vote.

"The climate is peaceful in Moroni. I hope it will be like this throughout the day," said Fahardine Mroivili, 40, the first voter to enter the polling station near the medina.

"There are countries where people are born and die without seeing an election. We are lucky to have elections," said Assnawi Mohamed, a 41-year-old technician.

An estimated 300,000 Comorans have emigrated to France, but they are once again not allowed to vote in the presidential contest despite regular promises by the authorities.

Remittances from the diaspora totalled over 20 percent of the archipelago's GDP in 2022, according to the World Bank.

First arriving to power in a coup d'etat in 1999, Assoumani returned to power in 2016 elections and has recently made a slew of economic promises from better roads to hospitals.

Posters reading "Azali, architect of the Comoros of tomorrow", decorated the micro-state in the lead-up to the polls, which will also see governors elected.

Provisional results may be available as soon as Monday, according to the CENI electoral commission.

If no presidential candidate wins outright, a second round is set for February 25.

I.Saadi--SF-PST