In elections held at the airport under heavy security.. Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud returns as President of Somalia
Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, the former president of Somalia, won the presidency of Somalia for the second time in a vote of parliamentarians, on Sunday, at an airport that was heavily guarded, to avoid attacks by militants.
Mahmoud, 66, who ruled Somalia from 2012 to 2017, defeated incumbent President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed by 214 votes to 110 in a third run-off for the elections in the troubled Horn of Africa country facing a rebellion. Armed and the threat of starvation.
"We have to move forward and we don't need grudges. No revenge," Mahmoud said in a speech from the airport complex in the capital, Mogadishu, which is guarded by African Union peacekeepers.
After a marathon election, the results of which were confirmed at about midnight, in which 36 candidates competed, whose events were broadcast live on state television. Supporters greeted the result with cheers and gunfire in the air across the capital, Mogadishu, after 3 rounds of voting throughout the day, in which politicians participated in a heavily guarded hangar at the airport.
Mogadishu witnessed shooting to celebrate the victory of Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud, whose election many hope will put an end to a political crisis that has been going on for more than a year after the end of the term of Mohamed Abdullah Mohamed, known as Farmajo, in February 2021 and the failure of a successor to be elected.
As lawmakers cast their votes under tight security inside a tent in the fortified airport complex in Mogadishu, explosions were heard, indicating the fragility of the security situation in the country, which has witnessed in recent months increased attacks by Al-Shabab.
Somalia has not held elections based on the principle of one vote for one person in 50 years.
Elections follow a complex, indirect model, whereby state legislators and clan representatives select representatives of the national parliament, who in turn choose the president.
Samira Gayed, executive director of the Mogadishu-based Heral Research Center, told AFP before the elections that traditional names have the upper hand in voting.
"People are not going to choose new faces, they will definitely choose old faces, people they know, people they feel more comfortable with," she added.
Mahmoud, the first Somali president to win a second term, pledged to transform Somalia into a "peaceful country reconciled with the world."
But he will inherit many challenges from his predecessor, especially the severe drought, which makes five million people in the country at risk of starvation.
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