Presidential election in Djibouti: voters called to the polls in a tense context
A woman enters the voting booth of a polling station in Djibouti, in April 2016. (Illustrative image) AFP - KARIM LEBHOUR
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4 min
Presidential election in Djibouti this Friday, April 9.
The Head of State, Ismaël Omar Guelleh, is a candidate for a fifth term.
The opposition which challenges the electoral process boycotted.
Facing the president, in power since 1999, there is therefore only one candidate: Zakaria Ismail Farah, an almost unknown entrepreneur who runs as an independent.
Djiboutians are being called to the polls in a tense context.
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With our correspondent in Nairobi,
Sébastien Németh
The presidential election is being held in a security context which has deteriorated in recent months.
Clashes between the army and Frud rebels
have increased since a series of attacks
in Tadjourah in which a gendarme was killed in mid-January.
In recent days, the politico-military group and the Djiboutian soldiers have faced each other again.
At the end of March in Aslé, last Monday in Biladiti Goda and finally Tuesday in Daoudawya, where the military camp was attacked.
At the same time, the country has seen demonstrations every week, and has been for several months.
A movement to
oppose a fifth term
of Ismaël Omar Guelleh, launched by the Radde party and pursued by other opposition movements.
The opponents of the Head of State who are partly allied.
At the end of March, three political parties, the Frud rebels, four NGOs and a dozen activists signed the Charter for a Democratic Transition.
This document aims to organize new power and democratic reforms for when the IOG regime falls.
Because these opponents are convinced, the more the Head of State stays in power, the more the risk of instability grows.
All repeat that they do not want Djibouti to sink into chaos, but the opposition believes that a risk of "somalization" of the country does exist.
The outgoing president faces an almost unknown entrepreneur
As in 1999 and 2011, only two candidates are in the running.
And difficult to find such diametrically opposed profiles.
On the one hand, Ismaël Omar Guelleh, in power for 22 years.
Even if he has repeatedly announced his willingness to hand over, the 73-year-old president has decided to come back.
This fifth term could be the last since the constitutional reform of 2010 established a limit of 75 years.
Despite the low stake, the Head of State traveled
the country during the campaign
, praising the construction of housing, ports, logistics infrastructure ...
In front of him, Zakaria Ismail Farah, 56 years old.
This engineer by training is in fact a nephew of the president.
Head of a company specializing in disinfection, he presents himself as an independent.
Unknown on the political scene, the businessman organized a few small gatherings to highlight his "
lucid and republican vision
," he said.
Zakaria Ismail Farah wants to be the standard bearer of the left behind, of the Djiboutians from below.
But during the campaign he complained in particular of not having a law enforcement service.
On March 28, he came with his fists tied and his mouth covered with adhesive tape to denounce "
the unequal treatment of which he is a victim
".
He has not reappeared in public since.
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