Eastleigh celebrates as US-educated former PM wins Somali presidential vote
Feb. 08, 2017, 6:00 pm
By REUTERS
Somalia
President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo follows the proceedings as lawmakers cast
their ballot during the presidential vote at the airport in Somalia's capital
Mogadishu, February 8, 2017. /REUTERS
Mohamed
Abdullahi Farmajo, a dual US-Somali citizen and former prime minister, was
sworn in as Somalia's new president on Wednesday after lawmakers voted behind
the secure blast walls of the capital's airport.
Celebratory
gunfire erupted across Mogadishu at his victory, after a security lock-down in
the seaside city aimed at deterring attacks by the al Shabaab Islamist group
which had threatened to derail the Western-backed election process.
"President
Farmajo," residents shouted in the streets.
In Nairobi's
Eastleigh, celebrations also broke out to welcome the new leader.
Celebrations
erupted in various parts of Eastleigh following the announcement that
US-educated former PM Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo had won the presidential
election, February 8, 2017. /COURTESY
Outgoing
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, whose administration faced public and Western
criticism for corruption scandals, conceded defeat as it became clear he could
not win in a third round of voting.
"This is a
victory for Somalia and the Somalis," Farmajo told members of parliament
shortly after taking the oath of office in a hall on the airport compound,
which is surrounded by concrete barriers and guarded by African peacekeeping
troops.
The voting
process, which lasted months, began with 14,000 elders and regional figures
choosing 275 members of parliament and 54 senators, who then had to choose
among 21 candidates.
Pervasive
corruption is one of the biggest complaints among ordinary Somalis and Western
donors. Rival candidates accused each other of buying votes. Anti-corruption
group Marqaati said tens of thousands of dollars changed hands in campaigning.
Western donors
had said the voting process was far from perfect but marked a modest step
forward from 2012 when just 135 elders picked the lawmakers, who then chose the
president.
The threat from
Islamist al Shabaab rebels, who regularly launch attacks in Mogadishu and
elsewhere, meant the government and its Western backers scrapped a plan to give
each adult a vote because of the challenge of securing polling stations.
Eastleigh
residents celebrate following the announcement that US-educated former PM
Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo had won the presidential election, February 8, 2017.
/COURTESY
As well as
tackling the Islamist insurgency, the new president also has to deal with a
severe food crisis in parts of the country, a young population demanding jobs
and empty state coffers.
Farmajo, born
in 1962, was prime minister from 2010 to 2011, when he slashed the size of the
cabinet and was credited with appointing technocrats. He quit during a power
struggle between the then president and parliament speaker.
One of his main
campaign promises was to halt corruption in the aid-dependent nation. "If
I become a president, Somali government officials will not misuse
revenue," he said in one speech.
Abdirashid
Hashi, the director of Mogadishu-based Heritage Institute for Policy Studies
who served in Farmajo's cabinet, said the president had a popular touch and was
"not clannish or corrupt" in a nation where clan rivalries usually
dominate politics.
He said Farmajo
was a US citizen who backed Republicans, the party of President Donald Trump.
"If a Somali politician could make headway with the Trump administration,
he might have chance make a go of it," he said.
In the 1980s,
Farmajo worked as a diplomat in the Somali embassy in Washington and lived in
the United States for several years after that, including a period working for
the New York State Department of Transportation.
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