Somalia: MPs to Elect New President
By Staff Writer
MOGADISHU--Somalia’s Parliament is due to elect a new president in a landmark election under a new roadmap that is laid to end decades of conflict in the Horn of Africa state.
The newly selected members of the 275-seat legislature will convene at a police academy in the capital, Mogadishu on Monday to vote a new head of state to replace the outgoing Transitional Federal Government (TFG) President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.
The lawmakers were selected by a group of traditional elders and clan members, and sworn in late last month at a ceremony that was heavily guarded by African Union troops.
The incumbent TFG leader and Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali are the top most favoured candidates in the contest that has pitted 25 candidates including prominent Somalis who have returned from overseas.
The polling which will be conducted in secret ballot requires a candidate to secure a two-thirds majority to win in the first round. If no candidate achieves that, the top four candidates will go through to a second round where also a two-thirds majority is needed, or else the two best place candidates would go to a third round.
This is the first presidential election are to be held on Somali soil in decades since the outbreak of the civil war in 1991, but has largely been criticised as being far from transparent and undemocratic. Analysts say the arbitrary and corrupt process that produced the lawmakers itself outrules a fair procedure to elect a new statesman.
Some have criticised the vote as just a reshuffle of positions of the previous government, owing to the strong influence by the outside powers who have for year, been involved militarily and politically in Somalia.
A diplomatic source in Mogadishu said millions of dollars were being used to bribe the lawmakers to vote in favour of the incumbent President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, saying that the money was coming from Somali business interests in the Gulf.
"Seven million dollars is estimated to have come from Gulf sources and the money is intended to ensure that President Sharif is re-elected," said the source who sought anonymity over sensitivity of the matter.
The presidential polls marks a milestone in the achievement of a regionally brokered roadmap also backed by the UN, that seeks to end the long-standing conflict, as the transitional authorities exits to pave way for the elected government.
The outgoing TFG propped by the 17,000-strong AU forces has faced patterns insurgency from militant groups and mainly the Islamist al-Shabab that seeks to impose Islamic rule all over Somalia.
The al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group has recently faced great offense from the joint AU and government forces that drove them from pockets it controlled in the capital and other strategic territories.