11 April 2002

Moroni, Comoros: Twenty-one UN Volunteers from 10 countries have arrived in the Comoro islands off the coast of Africa to help observe Sunday's presidential elections.

Recruited by the United Nations Volunteers programme (UNV) under an agreement between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the European Union (EU), the short-term UN Volunteers will observe the run-up to the elections and the final tabulation of the vote.

The UN Volunteers -- from Belgium, Benin, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom -- will also liaise with election bodies to report on the conduct of the polls on the islands of Anjouan, Moheli and Grand Comoros.

The main candidates for the four-year presidential term include Said Ali Kemal of the Shuma Party, Mahamoud Nradabi of the Shawiri Party and Colonel Azali Assoumani, an independent candidate. According to the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES), there were 250,000 registered voters for the last elections in 1996 out of a total population of 600,000.

Following a constitutional referendum on 23 December 2001, ahead of which nine UN Volunteers were recruited to support its preparations, a new government of national unity was put in place in mid-January to oversee the transition to the 14 April presidential elections.

Comoros has experienced political instability since independence from France in 1975. In 1997, the island of Anjouan unilaterally declared its independence in the hope of rejoining France.