Comorans are going to vote in presidential polls Sunday. It is seen as a test of whether the poverty-stricken Indian Ocean archipelago has broken a cycle of coups and inter-island strife that has hampered development since it declared independence in 1975.

Comorans agreed in 2001, following an elaborate reconciliation, to share power between a national government and the trio of islands -- Grande Comore, Anjouan and Moheli. Each island gets the federal presidency every four years.

Incumbent President Azali Assoumani comes from Grand Comore, therefore it is now Anjouan's turn. Moheli, the smallest island of the Union of Comoros, is due to take presidency in 2010.

The primary election was held on April 16, when 117,000 Anjouanese from a population of 250,000 narrowed down 14 candidates to three, namely popular Islamic leader and former parliamentarian Ahmed Abdallah Mohamed Sambi, National Assembly Vice President Mohamed Djanfari and former prime minister Abderemane Ibrahim Halidi.

The run-off scheduled for Sunday will be a nationwide election, in which an estimated 300,000 voters of the three islands are expected to cast their ballots.

Here are some facts about the three presidential hopefuls:

Ahmed Abdallah Mohamed Sambi took a lead in the primary election, winning about 24 percent of the votes.

He was born in June 1958 in Mutsamudu, capital and largest city on the island of Anjouan.

He accepted middle school education in Saudi Arabia from 1973 to 1981 after graduatiing from a primary school in Anjouan.

He studied politics and theology in an Iranian university before he returned to Comoros to do business.

Sambi owns a radio and television station in Anjouan called Ulezi (Education), which he is using to support his candidacy. He also owns factories manufacturing mattress, essence and mineral water.

He was elected parliamentarian in 1996.

Mohamed Djanfari ranked the second in the primary election, winning about 13 percent of the votes.

He was born in 1952 in Sima in Anjouan. He went to France to study in a military school after graduating from a secondary school in Anjouan in 1969.

Djanfari returned to the homeland in 1996 and launched a maritime transport company.

He was elected parliamentarian in 2004 and became vice president of the Assembly.

He holds dual nationalities of both Comoros and France.

Abderemane Ibrahim Halidi came third in the primary election with about 10 percent of the votes.

Halidi, a former prime minister under late President Said Mohamed Djohar, was born in 1954.

He accepted primary school education in Anjouan and studied at a secondary school in Moroni, capital of the Union of Comoros.

He has taught philosophy in secondary schools of the three islands.

He was a cabinet minister from 1990 and 1992 before he was appointed as prime minister in January 1993.

Halidi, who is seen as the candidate of the poor, is being supported by the incumbent president and his party, the Convention for the Restoration of Comoros.

Source: Xinhua