Somalia Elects Hassan Sheik Mohamud As President A Second Time

Somalia handed Hassan Sheikh Mohamud the presidency for a second time following Sunday's long-overdue election in the troubled Horn of Africa nation, which is confronting an insurgency and the threat of famine

Mogadishu, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 16th May, 2022 ) :Somalia handed Hassan Sheikh Mohamud the presidency for a second time following Sunday's long-overdue election in the troubled Horn of Africa nation, which is confronting an insurgency and the threat of famine.

After a marathon poll involving 36 candidates that was broadcast live on state tv, parliamentary officials counted 214 votes in favour of former president Mohamud, far more than the number required to defeat the incumbent Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, better known as Farmajo.

Celebratory gunfire erupted in the capital Mogadishu, with many hoping that the vote will draw a line under a political crisis that has lasted well over a year, after Farmajo's term ended in February 2021 without an election.

"Hassan Sheik Mohamud is the winner of the election for the president of the Somali Federal republic," said the speaker of the lower house, Sheikh Adan Mohamed Nur, better known as Sheikh Adan Madobe. He was previously president from 2012-2017.

Somalia's international partners had repeatedly warned that the election delays -- caused by political infighting -- were a dangerous distraction from the fight against the Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents who have been fighting to overthrow the government for more than a decade.

In a reminder of the country's treacherous security situation, explosions were heard Sunday near Mogadishu's heavily-guarded airport complex where MPs were voting. Police said no casualties were reported in the blasts.

Somalia has not held a one-person, one-vote election in 50 years.

Instead, polls follow a complex indirect model, whereby state legislatures and clan delegates pick lawmakers for the national parliament, who in turn choose the president.

Samira Gaid, executive director of the Mogadishu-based Hiraal Institute think-tank, told AFP ahead of the election that familiar Names would enjoy an advantage in the polls.

"People will not go for a new face, they will definitely go for old faces, people that they recognise, people that they feel they're more comfortable with," she said.

The first Somali president to win a second term, Mohamud has promised to transform Somalia into "a peaceful country that is at peace with the world".

He will inherit several challenges from his predecessor, including a devastating drought that threatens to drive millions into famine.

UN agencies have warned of a humanitarian catastrophe unless early action is taken, with emergency workers fearing a repeat of the devastating 2011 famine, which killed 260,000 people -- half of them children under the age of six.

He will also need to repair the damage caused by months of political chaos and infighting, both at the executive level and between the central government and state authorities.

"It's really been a lost year for Somalia," said Omar Mahmood, an analyst at the International Crisis Group (ICG) think-ank.

"This long-awaited election has been divisive. Reconciliation is the most immediate challenge," Mahmood told AFP.