Comoros: Government

Principal Government Officials

Chief of State: President Ikililou Dhoinine
Head of Government: President Ikililou Dhoinine

Since 2002, Comoros has been ruled by democratically elected leaders. It has a unique system under the 2001 constitution, wherein the office of the presidency rotates every 4 years among the three main islands. Thus, in the most recent elections, in December 2010, only those originating from the island of Moheli were eligible to run for the presidency. In 2014, the presidency will rotate to those originating from Grande Comore. Ikililou Dhoinine, a vice president and the favored candidate of then-incumbent President Ahmed Abdallah Mohamed Sambi, was elected in December 2010 in elections deemed generally free and fair. Though some irregularities were noted on the island of Anjouan, they were determined not to have changed the outcome of the vote. Dhoinine officially took office in May 2011. Former Comoran President Sambi, originating from the island of Anjouan, came to power in 2006 elections that were deemed generally free and fair, taking over from President Azali, who initially came to power in a coup but was elected in 2002 after resigning his military commission.

FOREIGN RELATIONS
In November 1975, Comoros became the 143rd member of the United Nations. The new nation was defined at that time as consisting of the entire archipelago, despite the fact that France maintained control over Mayotte. Mayotte officially became an Overseas Department of France in March 2011.

Comoros is also a member of the African Union, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the League of Arab States, the European Development Fund, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the International Labor Organization, the World Health Organization, the Indian Ocean Commission, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), and the African Development Bank.

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