The Indian Ocean nation of Comoros has issued a curfew after security forces battled with protestors outraged by President Azali Assoumani’s re-election in a ballot that opposition leaders condemned as fraudulent.
Throughout the day, protesters attempted to block roadways in the capital while others looted and set a former minister’s home on fire, according to reports.
The government imposed a night curfew in the evening, claiming “public necessity”.
The measure was to start at ten tonight (1900 GMT) and last until six am on Thursday worldwide, except for Moroni where it kicked in a few hours earlier, the interior ministry said.
Election officials said on Tuesday that Assoumani received 62.97 percent of the vote on Sunday’s ballot.
However, the five opposition challengers have cried screaming, citing ballot stuffing and conflicting results.
The biggest street market in the Indian Ocean archipelago was empty in the morning, and there were burning tires and furniture strewn across a number of Moroni’s roads.
Police and the army used tear gas and smoke to try to clear the highways that the demonstrators had blocked well into the afternoon.
In Geneva, the United Nations appealed for “all to exercise restraint”.
“As post-electoral tensions mount, it is paramount that the authorities ensure a safe environment, where all Comorans, including members of the political opposition, can freely express their views and exercise their right to peaceful assembly,” Volker Turk, the United Nations human rights chief, said.
He urged the authorities to release those arbitrarily detained, to investigate rights violations in the pre-election period and bring perpetrators to justice.
There have been no reports of deadly violence, but the Comoros a three-island chain with a population of about 870,000 is politically volatile and has seen 20 coups or attempted coups since independence in 1975.
Official results released Tuesday showed Assoumani, a former coup leader turned civilian president, won re-election in the first round.
But official turnout was unexpectedly low at 16 percent and large discrepancies in the number of votes reportedly cast for the presidential and regional governor races raised doubts about its regularity.
Opposition candidates said they were “horrified” to note that the official results implied improbably that more than two-thirds of people voted to elect island governors but failed to cast a presidential ballot in a parallel vote in the same polling stations.
