Comores-Anjouan

Moussa Toybou wins Anjouan presidential vote

Article published on the 2008-07-01 Latest update 2008-07-02 09:16 TU

Last Sunday's second-round presidential vote on the island of Anjouan left Moussa Touba the victor with five per cent more of the vote than his opponent Mohamed Djaanfari.

Toybou took just over 52 per cent of the ballots in a vote that saw almost half the eligible voters turn out. Participation was up after the first-round vote in June, which reached 43 per cent.

Once the result is confimed by the Constitutional Court, Touba will succeed Mohamed Bacar, who was removed from power by a joint African Union-Comores military operation last March, after his re-election was judged illegal.

Toybou is relatively unknown on the Comorian political scene but has the support of the Comores Union President Ahmed Abdallah Sambi.

Election observers including the AU and the Arab League expressed their satisfaction with the electoral process after the result was announced on Monday. They described the vote as "regular, free, fair and transparent."