Somalia MPs vote to choose country's president after 15 months delay

Somalia MPs are due to vote on Sunday (today) to choose the horn of African nation's president, ending the convoluted electoral process that raised tensions in the country when the president's term expired last year without a successor in place.

**All 329 lawmakers of both chambers of parliament are expected to vote by secret ballot. To win in the first round, a candidate must secure two-thirds of the vote, or 219 ballots. Observers expect a second or even third round of voting for the four top candidates.
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There are 39 registered presidential candidates, a list that includes incumbent Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, two former presidents, a former prime minister, several top officials and even a journalist.

The field includes one woman, Fawzia Yusuf Haji Adam, a lawmaker who once served as Somalia's foreign minister.

The vote takes place amid heightened insecurity as the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, which opposes the federal government, continues to stage lethal attacks in the capital and elsewhere in the Horn of Africa nation.

With mortar shells and gun assaults, al-Shabab in recent months has repeatedly tested the defenses of the Halane military camp, which is protected by African Union peacekeepers.

A suicide bombing Wednesday killed at least four, including two government soldiers, at a checkpoint near the heavily fortified airport area where lawmakers will meet Sunday to choose a new president.

The vote is behind schedule by 15 months and Somali authorities faced a May 17 deadline to hold the vote or risk losing key funding from international donors.

Somali polls are unpredictable, and it appears Mohamed - who is also known as Farmaajo - faces a tough battle for reelection.

Mohamed has been locked in a power struggle with his prime minister, Mohamed Hussein Roble, over control of the government.

Roble is not running for president, but behind the scenes he and other former leaders could play a decisive role in the outcome of the vote.

In addition to Mohamed, major contenders include former presidents Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, as well as former Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire and Said Dani, the current president of the regional state of Puntland.

Despite its persistent insecurity, Somalia has had peaceful changes of leadership every four years since 2000, and it has the distinction of having Africa’s first democratically elected president to peacefully step down, Aden Abdulle Osman in 1967.

Somalia began to fall apart in 1991, when warlords ousted dictator Siad Barre and then turned on each other. Years of conflict and al-Shabab attacks, along with famine, have shattered the country of some 12 million people.

The goal of a direct, one-person-one-vote election in Somalia remains elusive.

It was meant to take place this time. Instead, the federal government and states agreed on another “indirect election,” with lawmakers elected by community leaders - delegates of powerful clans - in each member state.

Somali elections are notoriously corrupt, and there have been widespread allegations of bribery beginning with the selection of lawmakers.

Mohamed's four-year term expired in February 2021, but he stayed in office after the lower house of parliament approved a two-year extension of his mandate and that of the federal government, drawing fury from Senate leaders and criticism from the international community.

The poll delay triggered an exchange of gunfire in April 2021 between soldiers loyal to the government and others angry over what they saw as the president's unlawful extension of his mandate.

Under pressure, Mohamed reversed the term extension and instructed the prime minister to engage with leaders of regional states to chart a fresh roadmap to the vote.

Whoever wins the election faces the urgent issue of insecurity, with al-Shabab fighters making territorial gains in recent months.

The new president will also have to help ease tensions between regional states competing for limited resources, analysts say.