The presidential election expected for more than a year in Somalia will be held on May 15, announced Thursday on public television, citing the Parliamentary Committee in charge of organizing the election in this unstable country in the Horn of Africa.
The mandate of the outgoing president Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, known as Farmajo, expired in February 2021 without him managing to organize a new election. Since then, the process has moved forward painfully, delayed by conflicts at the top of the executive and between the central government and some federal states.
The public television station SNTV posted a statement on Twitter signed by the parliamentary committee in charge of the election, announcing a timetable for the election with a deadline of Sunday, May 15.
At a meeting on Thursday, “members of the committee agreed that May 15 would be the day for the election of the president,” confirmed former government spokesman and MP Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimu, a member of the committee, on Facebook.
According to the timetable released by SNTV, registration of candidates will take place on May 8 and the candidates will address parliament on May 11 and 12.
In Somalia, the president is elected by members of parliament and senators. To be elected, a candidate must receive at least two-thirds of the vote, or 184 votes.
Four candidates are the main contenders for President Farmajo’s re-election: his two predecessors Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud (2012-2017) and Sharif Sheikh Ahmed (2009-2012), his former Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire (March 2017-June 2020), as well as the President of the Puntland region, Said Abdullahi Dani.
Somalia has lived in chronic instability for decades and faces an insurgency by radical Islamists Shebab, linked to al-Qaeda.
