Moroni (Comoros), Jan 18 (AP) People barricaded streets and burned tires for a second day Thursday in the Indian Ocean island nation of Comoros after the incumbent president was declared winner following an election earlier this month denounced by the country's opposition parties as fraudulent.

Some protesters tore down a poster of President Azali Assoumani, who was declared the winner of last weekend's presidential balloting, with more than 60% of the votes in his favour.

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Tuesday's declaration triggered violent protests the following day, when a government minister's house was set on fire and a car at the home of another minister was burned. People also vandalised a national food depot. Several roads in and around the capital, Moroni, were barricaded by protesters.

The government ordered a curfew on Wednesday night, until 6 am Thursday.

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United Nations human rights chief, Volker Türk, appealed for calm and urged authorities to allow people to protest peacefully. His office said it received reports of security forces firing tear gas at the protesters, including on a march by a group of women. Türk also said he was concerned with repression in Comoros in recent years.

Opposition parties have claimed Sunday's vote was fraudulent and say the national electoral commission is biased toward Assoumani, a former military officer who first came to power in a 1999 coup. The opposition have called for the election results to be canceled.

Comoros has a population of around 800,000 spread over three islands and has had a series of coups since independence from France in 1975.

Assoumani, 65, was reelected for a fourth term with 62.97% of the vote after changing the constitution in 2018 to allow him to sidestep term limits. He has been accused of cracking down on dissent and previously banned protests. He currently chairs the African Union, where his one-year largely ceremonial term is to end next month.

The government said a number of protesters were arrested, without offering specifics, and accused the opposition of finding “it difficult to accept defeat” and inciting the unrest.

“We know the instigators," government spokesperson Houmed Msaidie said. “Some of them are in the hands of law enforcement. We will continue to look for them because there is no question of the state giving way to violence.”

A coalition of opposition parties denied the accusations, saying the unrest shows people are “fed up” with the government.

When Assoumani changed the constitution in 2018, the move triggered mass demonstrations across the nation and an armed uprising on one of the islands, which was quelled by the army.

After taking power in a coup, Assoumani was first elected president in 2002. He stepped down in 2006 but returned to win a second term in 2016. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)