Comoros: dual nationals can no longer be presidential candidates
The General Assembly of the Comoros, March 25, 2019 in Moroni.
© GIANLUIGI GUERCIA / AFP
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2 mins
In the Comoros, despite numerous disputes, the law on the election of the President of the Union of the Comoros was voted in plenary on Wednesday 28 December.
The law now prevents all Comorian dual nationals from running for the supreme office of their country, unless they renounce holding another nationality which is not Comorian.
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With our correspondent in Moroni
,
Abdallah Mzembaba
You have to be Comorian by descent to hope to lead the Comoros one day.
This is provided for in the new law on the presidential election adopted on 28 December.
As for the Comorians by naturalization, the door of the presidential palace of Beit-Salam is definitively closed to them even if they were to give up their other nationalities.
The government refuses to believe that the diaspora is sidelined, as assures Fakridine Mahamoud, Minister of the Interior: “
As long as there is no exclusion of the diaspora… The diaspora can remain as such, but what we have said is that the candidate from the diaspora can go to all the elections.
For the presidential election, he must renounce his nationality.
So he is not de facto excluded, he has to give up.
»
For its part, the opposition does not mince its words and denounces a liberticidal text which voluntarily sets aside a large segment of the population, which nevertheless plays a preponderant role in the development of the country.
This is explained by Me Saïd Larifou, President of Ridja and former candidate for the 2019 presidential election: “
This text, which targets dual nationals – and particularly Franco-Comorians – is a very negative signal.
It is the expression of contempt, of the lack of recognition of the considerable contributions of Comorians abroad, and in particular those who are in France.
»
With the adoption of this law, a major part of the country's political class may be sidelined forever, as they possess at least dual nationality.
Unless, of course, some decide to give up their other nationalities, on the horizon of the presidential election of 2024.
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