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Azali Assoumani, former coup leader, has been elected President of the Comoros archipelago islands at the second-round vote held Sunday, according to official results released Friday.
Assoumani won 40.98 percent of the vote, ahead of his main rival Vice President Mohamed Ali Soilihi with 39.87 percent.
Comoros is an island country in the Western Indian Ocean.
It has a population of 780,000 people and is one of the poorest countries in the world.
Other countries near the Comoros are Tanzania to the northwest and the Seychelles to the northeast.
Its capital is Moroni, on Grande Comore. At 1,660 km2 (640 sq mi), excluding the contested island of Mayotte, the Comoros is the third-smallest African nation by area.
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The population, excluding Mayotte, is estimated at 798,000. As a nation formed at a crossroads of different civilizations, the archipelago is noted for its diverse culture and history.
The archipelago was first inhabited by Bantu speakers who came from East Africa, supplemented by Arab and Austronesian immigration.
Azali Assoumani was President of the Comoros from 1999 to 2002 and again from 2002 to 2006.
He became leader of the country on 30 April 1999 after leading a coup to depose acting president Tadjidine Ben Said Massounde, who he saw as pandering to the independence movement on Anjouan.
He won multi-party elections in 2002, prior to which he was constitutionally required to temporarily step down in order to run as a candidate.
Azali was born in 1959 at Mitsoudjé in south-western Grande Comore.
Until he overthrew the civilian government in 1999, he pursued a military career for two decades.
Between 1977 and 1980 he trained at the Royal Military Academy in Morocco and qualified as a parachutist.
On his return to Comoros, he joined the FAC. After the death of Abdullah and the departure of the mercenaries in 1989-1990, Major Azali became a senior officer in the new Comorian Defense Force (FCD).
In 1996 he undertook further training at a French military academy and was promoted to colonel and chief of staff of the new National Army of Development (NAD).
Constitutionally, the presidency is supposed to rotate every four years between the country’s three islands, Grande Comore, Anjouan and Mohéli.
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