Mohamed Abdullahi
Farmajo was elected president of Somalia on Wednesday, the Associated Press
reports.
Outgoing President
Hassan Sheikh Mohamud conceded defeat after votes from the second round were
tallied. Mr. Farmajo was subsequently sworn in as president.
Somalis celebrated
in the streets and chanted their new president’s name, hoping that his tenure
will usher in a new era of peace and stability for the troubled Horn of Africa
country. The sound of gunfire rang throughout Mogadishu, the capital, but
witnesses confirmed that they were merely celebratory gunshots fired in the air
by jubilating soldiers.
“History was made,
we have taken this path to democracy, and now I want to congratulate Mohamed
Abdullahi Farmajo,” Mr. Mohamud said.
Mr. Farmajo
previously served as prime minister of Somalia for eight months before stepping
down in 2011. He also worked in the United States with the Somali foreign
affairs ministry.
“This victory
represents the interest of the Somali people,” Mr. Farmujo said after taking
his oath. “This victory belongs to Somali people, and this is the beginning of
the era of the unity, the democracy of Somalia and that beginning of the fight
against corruption.”
Electoral process
The contest was not
a conventional popular vote in which all eligible citizens cast their ballots.
Instead, some 14,000 elders and regional figures chose 275 members of
parliament and 54 senators to decide the election.
The lawmakers then
voted in a first round election, choosing between the incumbent president and
twenty challengers. Mr. Mohamud won the first round, tallying 88 votes to Mr.
Farmajo’s 72.
In the third round,
however, Mr. Farmajo defeated the incumbent and former President Sharif Sheikh
Ahmed and was consequently declared president.
Reuters reports that
the voting exercise was conducted in Mogadishu’s highly secure airport amid
threats of attacks from al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda affiliate that has wreaked
havoc in Somalia for several years.
While Wednesday's
election was conducted free of al-Shabaab attacks, the United Nations, U.S.,
European Union, and others warned of “egregious cases of abuse of the electoral
process” in a joint statement issued a few weeks ago. The statement warned of
intimidation and bribery of elders and lawmakers.
*Saharareporters*
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