For the presidential election on January 14, 2024, candidate Abdallah Daoudou Mohamed has proposed a lottery to determine the sole opponent to Azali Assoumani among the competing candidates. He urges his fellow opposition members to organize and choose a single representative from the five candidates in the race. On the side of the other candidates, while the door is not definitively closed, the current priority lies elsewhere.
Abdallah Daoudou Mohamed asserts that he can win the victory on his own in the presidential election. However, the unity he advocates is necessary at this time for the supreme interest of the nation:
“We have two things in common among the five candidates. The love for our country, but also liberating the country from the hands of Azali. The process is beginning to be tainted by notorious irregularities, including the behavior of the CENI, and the actions of the Supreme Court, especially the constitutional and electoral chamber. So, faced with this situation, unity is needed. That is why we have put forward this proposal, and it remains valid until the 14th.”
Candidate Mouigni Baraka Saïd Soilihi points out that in 2016, Azali Assoumani, a candidate among a multitude of opponents, won the election. For him, the problem is not the number of candidates, “We will have a total of 4,300 and some polling station members. The risk is that all these members will be members of the ruling party,” he believes. “So, facing a single person representing the opposition candidate, imagine. If the government agrees that these representatives in the polling stations are distributed according to the number of candidates, then there may be a chance that the assessor appointed by the opposition candidate could do the job.”
Emphasizing the securing of the election, therefore, seems to be the priority for candidate Mouigni Baraka, who nevertheless states that a single candidacy, once this condition is met, is possible, even on the eve of the election.