Country name:
conventional long form: Union of the Comoros
conventional short form:
Comoros
local long form:
Udzima wa Komori (Comorian); Union des Comores (French); Jumhuriyat al Qamar al Muttahidah (Arabic)
local short form:
Komori (Comorian); Comores (French); Juzur al Qamar (Arabic)
Government type:
republic
Capital:
name:
Moroni
geographic coordinates:
11 42 S, 43 14 E
time difference:
UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)
Administrative divisions:
3 islands and 4 municipalities*; Anjouan (Ndzuwani), Domoni*, Fomboni*, Grande Comore (N'gazidja), Moheli (Mwali), Moroni*, Moutsamoudou*
Independence:
6 July 1975 (from France)
National holiday:
Independence Day, 6 July (1975)
Constitution:
previous 1996; latest ratified 23 December 2001; amended 2009 and 2014 (2014)
Legal system:
mixed legal system of Islamic religious law, the French civil code of 1975, and customary law
International law organization participation:
has not submitted an ICJ jurisdiction declaration; accepts ICCt jurisdiction
Suffrage:
18 years of age; universal
[see also: Suffrage country ranks ]
:
chief of state:
President Ikililou DHOININE (since 26 May 2011)
head of government:
President Ikililou DHOININE (since 26 May 2011)
cabinet:
Council of Ministers appointed by the president
elections:
as defined by the 2001 constitution, the presidency rotates every four years among the elected presidents from the three main islands in the Union; election last held on 7 November and 26 December 2010 (next to be held in 2015)
election results:
Ikililou DHOININE elected president; percent of vote - Ikililou DHOININE 61.1%, Mohamed Said FAZUL 32.7%, Abdou DJABIR 6.2%
Legislative branch:
unicameral Assembly of the Union (33 seats; 15 deputies are selected by the individual islands' local assemblies and 18 by universal suffrage to serve for five years);
elections:
last held on 6 and 20 December 2009 (next to be held in 2014)
election results:
percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - pro-union coalition 19, autonomous coalition 4, independents 1; note - 9 additional seats are filled by deputies from local island assemblies
Judicial branch:
highest court(s):
Supreme Court or Cour Supreme (consists of 7 judges); Constitutional Court (consists of 8 members)
judge selection and term of office:
Supreme Court judges selected - 2 by the president of the Union, 2 by the Assembly of the Union, and 1 each by the 3 island councils; judges appointed for life; Constitutional Court members appointed - 1 by the president, 1 each by the 3 vice presidents, 1 by the Assembly, and 1 each by the island executives; all members serve 6-year renewable terms
subordinate courts:
Court of Appeals (in Moroni); Tribunal de premiere; island village (community) courts; religious courts
Political parties and leaders:
Camp of the Autonomous Islands or CdIA (a coalition of parties organized by the islands' presidents in opposition to the Union President)
Political pressure groups and leaders:
other:
environmentalists
International organization participation:
ACP, AfDB, AMF, AOSIS, AU, CAEU (candidates), COMESA, FAO, FZ, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, InOC, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ITSO, ITU, ITUC (NGOs), LAS, NAM, OIC, OIF, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO (observer)
Diplomatic representation in the US:
chief of mission:
Ambassador Roubani KAAMBI (since 6 September 2012); note - also serves as Permanent Representative to the UN
chancery:
Mission to the US, 866 United Nations Plaza, Suite 418, New York, NY 10017
telephone:
[1] (212) 750-1637
FAX:
[1] (212) 750-1657
Diplomatic representation from the US: the US does not have an embassy in Comoros; the ambassador to Madagascar is accredited to Comoros
Flag description:
four equal horizontal bands of yellow (top), white, red, and blue, with a green isosceles triangle based on the hoist; centered within the triangle is a white crescent with the convex side facing the hoist and four white, five-pointed stars placed vertically in a line between the points of the crescent; the horizontal bands and the four stars represent the four main islands of the archipelago - Mwali, N'gazidja, Ndzuwani, and Mahore (Mayotte - department of France, but claimed by Comoros)
note:
the crescent, stars, and color green are traditional symbols of Islam
National symbol(s):
four stars and crescent
National anthem:
name:
"Udzima wa ya Masiwa" (The Union of the Great Islands)
lyrics/music: Said Hachim SIDI ABDEREMANE/Said Hachim SIDI ABDEREMANE and Kamildine ABDALLAH
note: adopted 1978
NOTE: 1) The information regarding Comoros on this page is re-published from the 2015 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Comoros Government 2015 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Comoros Government 2015 should be addressed to the CIA.
2) The rank that you see is the CIA reported rank, which may habe the following issues:
a) They assign increasing rank number, alphabetically for countries with the same value of the ranked item, whereas we assign them the same rank.
b) The CIA sometimes assignes counterintuitive ranks. For example, it assigns unemployment rates in increasing order, whereas we rank them in decreasing order
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This page was last modified 10-Feb-15