20091220

MORONI (Reuters) - A Comoros opposition leader alleged irregularities in parliamentary elections on Sunday which are likely to determine whether the Indian Ocean nation's president can stay in power after he is supposed to stand down.

One of the new assembly's first tasks will be to ratify or reject a "Yes" vote in a referendum last May to prolong President Ahmed Abdalla Sambi's term, which ends next year.

The opposition has warned that any evidence of rigging risked destabilising the politically volatile archipelago.

"The measures taken in order to avoid fraud are not being followed through in all constituencies," opposition leader Houmed Msaidie told Reuters.

Not all ballot papers were being signed off by the heads of polling stations and election observers during Sunday's second round of voting, he said.

Sambi took over the presidency, which rotates between the archipelago's three main islands, in 2006 in the first democratic handover since independence from France in 1975.

Under this system he is due to step down next May but earlier this year Comorians voted to extend Sambi's mandate by a year and streamline the convoluted federal political system.

Local observers say parliament is expected to pass a bill endorsing the referendum result if Sambi's ruling coalition wins a majority in the assembly.