MORONI, May 16 (Xinhua) -- Former parliamentarian Ahmed Abdallah Mohamed Sambi was the winner of the Comoran presidential elections, announced the Indian Ocean island nation's National Electoral Commission here Tuesday.

    He gained 58.14 percent of the votes in the nationwide run-off. The rival former prime minister Abderemane Ibrahim Halidi and National Assembly vice-president Mohamed Djanfari received 28.11 percent and 13.72 percent of the votes respectively.

    The result needs to be validated by the Constitutional Court to be legally effective. The validation is only a matter of procedure, said local analysts.

    A total of 178,500 people voted in the election held on Sunday, accounting for 58 percent of the registered voters.

    The president elected, whose term is four years, is scheduled to be sworn in on May 25.

    This year's election is the first one for the country to see presidency rotate from one island to another.

    It is seen as a test of whether the poverty-stricken country 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, among which the federal presidency rotates every four years.

    Outgoing 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.

    Sambi took a lead in the primary election held on April 16, 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 graduating 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 used to support his candidacy. He also owns factories manufacturing mattress, essence and mineral water.

    He was elected parliamentarian in 1996. Enditem