Comoros 2014
Yearbook 2014
Comoros. A senior official at the Kuwait Ministry of the Interior announced in November that tens of thousands of bidongs, that is, the country’s stateless population, could be offered citizenship in the Comoros. Comoros population in 2020 is estimated at 869,612. Those who accept the offer will reportedly be granted a permanent residence permit in Kuwait as well as qualify for free education and health care. According to topb2bwebsites, the process was said to start as soon as the Comoros set up an embassy in Kuwait, which was expected to happen within a few months. The parliamentary elections scheduled for December 2014 were held until February 2015.
History
The political turning point that took place at the beginning of the nineties in the federal republic of Comoros allowed the restoration of a multi-party system: after more than a decade the agreement between the main political forces of the country sanctioned the end of the one-party regime established in 1979., just four years after the proclamation of the independence of the islands. Nevertheless, the internal situation remained characterized by great instability, due to the persistence of difficult economic conditions and the growth of social protest against the rigid austerity measures launched by the government on the recommendation of the IMF and the World Bank. Even the unresolved question of the island of Mayotte – subject to French sovereignty, but claimed by the Comoros – fueled a strong discontent that favored the occurrence of repeated coup attempts (1990, 1991, 1992). In June 1992 a new presidential constitution came into force, and in the following November there were legislative elections marked by widespread irregularities, from which no clear winner emerged. New consultations (December 1993) were won by the party founded by President Said Mohamed Djohar, the Rassemblement pour la démocratie et le renouveau.
In September 1995, however, the Djohar administration was overthrown by yet another coup d’état, the work of European mercenaries led by the French B. Denard, forced to surrender a month later by a French military intervention. To counter Djohar’s return to power, the president’s opponents formed a provisional government and organized new presidential consultations (March 1996), won by M. Taki Abdoulkarim of the Union nationale pour la démocratie aux Comores. In October 1996 a popular referendum approved a new Constitution which further strengthened the presidential prerogatives, underlining in the preamble the role of the state religion of Islam. In December of the same year the Rassemblement national pour le développement, the new party of the president, won the legislative elections, characterized by low participation and the boycott of the main opposition parties. In the summer of 1997 political stability was further threatened by a separatist revolt that broke out in the islands of Anjouan (Nzwani) and Moheli (Mwali) and culminated in the declaration of independence from the Comoros. In November 1998, on the death of Taki Adoulkarim, M. Ben Said Massonde was appointed interim president, but on 30 April 1999, after the failure of the peace talks between the parties to reach an agreement on the future of the archipelago, a new blow of State brought Colonel A. Assoumani to power.
