Somalia elected Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud as president for the second time on Sunday, as the Horn of Africa country faces an Islamist insurgency and looming famine.
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After a marathon vote to decide between 36 candidates, broadcast on national television, parliamentary officials counted more than 165 votes in favor of ex-president Mohamoud (in power from 2012 to 2017), who therefore exceeded the number of votes required to defeat the incumbent, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, says Farmajo.
“
Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud is the winner of the election to be President of the Federal Republic of Somalia
,” said Speaker of the Lower House of Parliament, Sheikh Adan Mohamed Nour, better known as Sheikh Adan Madobe.
This election took place after more than a year of delay in this unstable country in the Horn of Africa shaken by a long political crisis, which is also suffering from a historic drought.
Deputies and senators began voting on Sunday to decide between the 36 presidential candidates, under a tent placed under curfew erected in the perimeter of Mogadishu airport, where security forces are omnipresent.
Explosions were heard near the airport as voting began, a reminder of how precarious the security situation remains in the country.
However, police said no casualties were reported.
After hours of voting, broadcast on national television, the complex electoral process has entered its third and final phase with the two candidates still in the running, outgoing President Farmajo and his predecessor Hassan Cheikh Mohamoud, as five years ago.