Deputies and senators in Somalia are poised to elect the country’s next president on May 15th against the backdrop of an ongoing insurgency by al-Shabaab militants.
This date was set by the parliamentary committee responsible for organizing the ballot in the Horn of Africa country rocked by decades of instability.
Incumbent president Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo will run for a second term.
Farmajo announced his candidacy on national public television, saying he was responding to “the call of the people”, in order to pursue the “path of progress and development”.
The 60-year-old who came to power in 2017, faces a dozen competitors including two former presidents in the persons of Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud (2012-2017) and Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed (2009-2012).
The Somali presidential election, which was to be held in 2021 had been postponed several times, due to strong differences between the current president and his Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble.
Successive Somali presidents have been elected by deputies and senators in the past and this tradition is set to continue on Sunday.
To be elected, a candidate must collect at least two-thirds of the votes of both chambers, i.e. 184 votes.
However, this election which is being seen as too close to call will be held in a context of an upsurge in attacks by Shabaab militants, linked to al-Qaeda.
The insurgents have been involved in an insurrection for the past fifteen years against the central government backed by the international community.
In recent days, Shabaab militants raided a base of the Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) killing a dozen Burundian soldiers.
The African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom), deployed in the country since 2007, has succeeded in driving Shabaab from major cities such as the capital Mogadishu.
Since then, AMISOM renamed the Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), has been trying to maintain peace in country which has faced a jihadist threat and hunger due to drought.
CD/glg/as/APA