The Juwa Party (French: Parti Juwa, lit. 'Sun Party', PJ) is a political party in the Comoros. The party was established by former president Ahmed Abdallah Mohamed Sambi in 2013 and became the main opposition party in 2015.[1] After boycotting the 2020 elections, it currently has no representation in parliament.

History

The party was established on 30 October 2013 by former President Ahmed Abdallah Mohamed Sambi;[2] "Juwa" is the Comorian word for "Sun".[3] In the 2015 parliamentary elections it emerged as the second-largest faction in the Assembly of the Union, winning seven of the 24 directly elected seats.[4] The party did not contest the 2016 presidential elections.

In the 2019 presidential election, the Juwa Party candidate Ibrahim Mohamed Soulé was disqualified on the grounds that his application form was signed by the deputy secretary-general of the party and not the secretary-general of the party, Ahmed Al Barwane, who was in prison.[5] Following the verdict, the party lent its support to independent candidate Mahamoudo Ahamada. Ahamada finished second with 15% of the vote, with President Azali Assoumani winning with 61%. Violent protests after the election, whose leaders included Juwa party members, were violently dispersed by the army. Ahamada subsequently became joint leader of the party with Sambi.[6]

The Juwa Party and other opposition parties boycotted the 2020 parliamentary elections, claiming they had not obtained guarantees of a 'transparent, free and democratic' election, or the right of Comorian expatriates to vote.[7]

References

  1. ↑ Freedom in the World 2016: The Annual Survey of Political Rights and Civil Liberties. Rowman & Littlefield. 2016-12-24. ISBN 978-1-4422-6153-2.
  2. ↑ Former president to stand again in 2016 election The Economist, 7 November 2013
  3. ↑ Tom Lansford (2015) Political Handbook of the World 2015, CQ Press
  4. ↑ Comorian elections: CENI results for the second round! Archived 2019-03-31 at the Wayback Machine Comores Actualités, 26 February 2015 (in French)
  5. ↑ "Tight race expected as the Comoros heads to the polls". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
  6. ↑ "Political parties and leaders". CIA World Factbook. Archived from the original on January 9, 2019. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
  7. ↑ "Comoros votes in parliamentary poll boycotted by opposition". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 10 May 2020.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.