Moderate Islamist wins Somali election
Somalia’s parliament elected a moderate Islamist leader as the country’s new president early today, handing over the elusive task of stabilising a country wracked by violence and anarchy for nearly 20 years.
Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was elected in neighbouring Djibouti after the last president – a former soldier, rebel and warlord named Abdullahi Yusuf – resigned in December after failing to pacify the country during his four-year presidential term.
Mr Ahmed was chairman of the Islamic Courts Union that ran Mogadishu for six months in 2006 before Ethiopian soldiers drove them from power.
His election raises hopes that he will bring many of Somalia’s Islamic factions into a more inclusive government.
But the Western-backed government wields little control in Somalia – just a few blocks of the capital, Mogadishu, where African Union peacekeepers patrol.
An Islamic insurgent group called al Shabab, who say they do not recognise the government, has taken over most of Somalia.
The US considers al Shabab a terror organisation with links to al-Qaida.
Somalia’s parliament has been meeting all week in neighbouring Djibouti to choose the new president. Sharif won easily with 293 votes after the other front-runner, the prime minister, withdrew. The second-place candidate received 126 votes.
Mr Ahmed was due to be sworn in later today, then fly to the Ethiopian capital for an African Union summit.
