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Somalia Parliament Re-elects Former President to Top Job

Harun Maruf for Voice of America reports that parliament has re-elected former President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud following marathon voting in Mogadishu on May 15.

The voting took place in the heavily guarded Mogadishu airport with African Union forces securing the tent inside a hangar, where the secret balloting took place. In a joint session of the two houses of the parliament, the Upper House and Lower House, 327 lawmakers cast ballots for 36 presidential candidates in three rounds of voting.

Outgoing President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo and his immediate predecessor, Mohamud, competed in the final round of voting, needing a simple majority to win. It was a rematch of the 2017 election when Farmaajo beat Mohamud to become president.

The vote marked the end of a long-delayed and controversial process.

The Horn of Africa nation of 16 million has been struggling to achieve viable political stability after decades of civil war and violent insurgency that has spilled across its borders. Under the country's indirect electoral process, clan elders select the 275 members of the lower house, who in turn choose the president.

Writing for The Conversation Africa, Mohammed Ibrahim Shire sets the scene ahead of an important election.

In events leading up to the poll, the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) imposed a curfew on the Afisyoni air force hangar in the capital, Mogadishu, and surrounding areas. In an earlier suicide blast near Mogadishu airport, which is the site of the election, at least four people, including two security personnel, were killed and seven people were wounded.

Key candidates in the elections were Farmajo and his two predecessors, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.

InFocus

General Assembly of the United Nations

Parliament has reelected former President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud (file photo).

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