Comoros president’s young son expected future leader

Young and ambitious, the son of Comoros President Azali Assoumani has all the trappings of a leader in waiting.

As the ruling party of the small Indian Ocean archipelago gathered to appoint a new secretary general at the weekend, many thought the top job would go to Nour El Fath Azali, 39.

ALSO READ: Zimbabwe governing party assures peace as election nears

WOULD AZALI ACCEPT THE PARTY’S DECISION?

Azali himself — currently a private adviser to his father — seemed open to taking on a bigger role. “If the party asks me, I will accept its decision,” Azali told AFP on the sidelines of the event in the capital Moroni, wearing a white shirt and a blue cap with the ruling party logo.

The Convention for the Renewal of the Comoros (CRC) eventually handed another term to incumbent secretary Youssoufa Mohamed Ali, a veteran politician. And with his father looking to remain in power for another five-year term after elections next year, some believe Azali’s anointment might have only been postponed.

ALSO READ: Split couples and ghost voters haunt Zimbabwe elections

Azali, who describes himself as a “perfectionist”, has enjoyed a growing public presence since his father, currently the head of the African Union, won a disputed election in 2019.

As a presidential adviser, he is often seen alongside ministers at televised press conferences and was the driving force behind the CRC’s congress held at a Moroni hotel, where he cut a busy figure.

ALSO READ: Mozambique announces nationwide elections in 2024

Given Comoros’s turbulent history and what critics say are Assoumani’s authoritarian tendencies; many believe he is poised to take over the reins of the small country of less than a million people.

“My dearest wish is to see young people… take ownership of politics,” said government spokesman Houmed Msaidie in what sounded like an endorsement. “Nour El Fath Azali is a true leader, a visionary,” said Soilihi Mohamed Djounaid, a prominent CRC member who heads a state-owned energy company.

ALSO READ: City of Johannesburg cracks down on water and electricity thief, disconnects Leeuwkop prison

Assoumani, 64, a former army chief-of-staff, came to power in a 1999 coup. After retiring from politics in 2006, he returned with a bang ten years later, winning a vote marred by violence and allegations of irregularities.

In 2019, he staged another round of elections after persuading Comorans to vote in a controversial referendum to support the extension of presidential terms from one five-year term to two.

THE RISE OF AZALI HAS NOT PLEASED COMOROS

It was then that Azali, a shy father-of-three with an MBA in international finance obtained in the United States, who previously worked in a bank, emerged from relative obscurity. Yet his rise has not pleased everyone.

A CRC insider who asked for anonymity described Azali as “arrogant”, accusing him of taking no prisoners in his quest for power. “He’s applying a scorched-earth strategy, trying to eliminate his father’s supporters from the political arena,” the insider said.

“The CRC is a paper tiger plagued by deep internal divisions. This doesn’t bode well with just a few months to go before the presidential election.” Achmet Said Mohamed, a 2019 presidential candidate who recently returned to Comoros after four years in self-imposed exile, said Azali’s ascent was telling of the state of democracy in Comoros.

“He just has the golden parachute of his dictator father. This is a fairly common phenomenon common to all dictatorships,” he said. Assoumani is widely expected to run for another term next year, with the first round of voting scheduled for January.

str/ub/imm

© Agence France-Presse