WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2009-05-19 Time: 15:00:03 Posted By: Jan
Moroni – Voters in Comoros have approved prolonging President Ahmed Abdallah Sambi’s term by one more year in a controversial referendum shunned by the opposition, provisional results show.
The referendum passed with 93.8 percent of the votes against 6.2 percent opposed, the justice minister Mmadi Ali told a news conference late Monday.
Only about half of the people of the Indian Ocean archipelago eligible to vote cast their ballots as turnout was put at 52.7 percent. The opposition had called for a boycott.
The result, which has to be confirmed by the constitutional court within 72 hours, will see Sambi, in office since 2006, extending his term to 2011.
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Sambi, who took over from Azali Assoumani of the Grande Comores, was supposed to step down next year had he not conducted the referendum.
The presidency of the Union of Comoros rotates between the federal leaders of the three islands of Grande Comores, Anjouan and Moheli.
Under the new constitution, federal presidents of the semi-autonomous islands have been downgraded to governors.
“The way this referendum took place shows that the people of the Comoros are mature,” the head of the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI), Djazila Saendou, told AFP.
The new constitution also gives the president powers to dissolve the national assembly and make Islam the state religion. Sambi is a moderate Islamist.
The three islands are semi-autonomous and have their own institutions under an arrangement forged in 2001 after decades of unrest with sporadic coup bids, mostly foiled.
Efforts to block the referendum failed at the 11th hour when a court threw out an opposition petition to cancel the vote which critics said is illegal and would foment chaos in the archipelago.
The impoverished archipelago is one of the most volatile regions of Africa. It has seen 19 coups and coup attempts since its independence from France in 1975. – Sapa-AFP
Source: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=nw20090519094702912C533202