Referendum or popular consultation

Comorian independence referendum, 1974

Voters in the Comoro Archipelago voted on independence on 22 December 1974; the archipelago-wide result was 94.57% in favour, but a majority on the island of Mayotte voted against, which France later cited to retain Mayotte as a French territory.

What happened

According to the scholarly reference work Elections in Africa: A Data Handbook, of 163,167 total votes cast, 163,037 were valid, and 94.57% of the archipelago-wide vote favoured independence. Results varied sharply by island: Anjouan, Grande Comore and Mohéli each voted over 99% in favour of independence, while a majority on Mayotte, 63.22%, voted against.[1]

Sources for this page

Each number marks a specific claim. Notes give the source, its locator and how it relates to the claim.

  1. 1.

    Claim: A referendum on independence for the Comoro Archipelago was held on 22 December 1974; of 163,167 total votes cast, 163,037 were valid, and 94.57% of the archipelago-wide vote favoured independence. Anjouan, Grande Comore and Mohéli each voted over 99% in favour, while a majority on Mayotte, 63.22%, voted against.

    • Nohlen, Dieter; Krennerich, Michael and Thibaut, Bernhard, Elections in Africa: A Data Handbook (Oxford University Press, 1999) , Comoros chapter, election results table. Source record

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