Indirect presidential elections were held in

Somalia Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The country is located in the Horn of Africa and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, th ...

on 8 February 2017.

Member Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

s of

parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

elected in the autumn-2016

parliamentary election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. General elections ...

elected former

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed (, ; born March 11, 1962), also known as Farmaajo, is a Somali politician who served as president of Somalia from 2017 to 2022. He was Prime Minister of Somalia, prime minister of Somalia for six months, from Novembe ...

to the post of

President of Somalia The president of Somalia () is the head of state of Somalia. The president is also commander-in-chief of the Somali Armed Forces. The president represents the Federal Republic of Somalia, and the unity of the Somali nation, as well as ensuri ...

for a four-year term. The presidential elections had been planned for August 2016 and promised to be a one-person, one-vote national poll, but had been postponed several times and shifted to an

electoral college An electoral college is a body whose task is to elect a candidate to a particular office. It is mostly used in the political context for a constitutional body that appoints the head of state or government, and sometimes the upper parliament ...

system due to security concerns. On 26 January 2017, the election was set for 8 February, with candidates required to register by 29 January. The election was held in an airport hangar at

Aden Adde International Airport Aden Adde International Airport (, ) , formerly known as Mogadishu International Airport, is an international airport serving Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. It is named after Aden Abdullah Osman Daar, the first President of Somalia. Orig ...

Mogadishu Mogadishu, locally known as Xamar or Hamar, is the capital and List of cities in Somalia by population, most populous city of Somalia. The city has served as an important port connecting traders across the Indian Ocean for millennia and has ...

. Mohamed was declared president in a

peaceful transition of power A peaceful transition or transfer of power is a concept important to democracy, democratic governments in which the leadership of a government peacefully hands over control of government to a newly elected leadership. This may be after elections o ...

after incumbent President

Hassan Sheikh Mohamud Hassan Sheikh Mohamud (Somali language, Somali: ''Xasan Sheekh Maxamuud''; ; born 29 November 1955) is a Somali politician serving as the president of Somalia since 15 May 2022. He previously held the office from 2012 to 2017. Hassan was previo ...

conceded defeat and congratulated the victor.

Security

Due to the ongoing

civil war A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, security for the ballot was a significant concern. The vote was initially planned to be held at a Mogadishu police academy but was moved to the more secure

, considered as the safest place in Somalia's Capital. On the voting day, traffic was banned in the city, schools were closed and flights to and from the airport were suspended.

Electoral system

In the previous presidential election in 2012, the president was elected by a parliament that had been picked by 135 elders. Plans in 2016–2017 for a full election involving all adult Somalis were scrapped due to security concerns relating to the ongoing

. The election costs were 60% funded by donor countries in Europe, the United States and Japan, with the remainder from the Somali government and candidate registration fees. The president was elected by the 328 members of the

Lower House A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...

and

Upper House An upper house is one of two Legislative chamber, chambers of a bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house. The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smaller and often has more restricted p ...

of the Somali Parliament. The Parliament's members were elected in the 2016 parliamentary election which itself was limited to 14,025 clan elder-appointed delegates. The election's foreign financiers described the extension of the franchise as a "modest step forward". The procedure for the election—a form of

runoff voting Runoff voting can refer to: * election methods where candidates are eliminated based on comparison of votes tallies: ** Two-round system, a voting system where only the top two candidates from the first round continue to the second round. ** Instan ...

—is outlined in section 89 of the

Constitution of Somalia The Provisional Constitution of the Federal Republic of Somalia () is the supreme law of Somalia. It provides the legal foundation for the existence of the Federal Republic and source of legal authority. It sets out the rights and duties of its ...

. There were over twenty registered candidates in the first round of voting.

Bribery

The parliamentary election was considered by experts to be one of the most corrupt political events in the history of the country. Amid widespread reports of vote-buying, investigators estimated at least $20 million had been paid as bribes. Several candidates paid political unknowns to run against them to add a veneer of legitimacy to their races, and analysts have said that Al-Shabaab did not interfere with the election, as the corruption involved made the group look good by comparison. Much of the money used came from foreign nations with interests in Somalia, which hoped that the candidates they supported monetarily would help advance their interests. Once seated, the parliament voted on who would become president.

Candidates

A total of 23 or 24 candidates declared themselves, though withdrawals—including that of

Abdirahman Farole Abdirahman Mohamed Mohamoud Farole (; ; born 1945) is a Somali politician. He served for many years in the government, acting as a governor of the Nugal region of Somalia in the 1990s and later as the Minister of Finance of the autonomous Pun ...

—reduced the field to 21 by the time of the vote. The field included the incumbent President

, incumbent Prime Minister

Omar Sharmarke Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke (; , ) (born 18 June 1960), popularly known as Omar Sharmarke, is a Somali diplomat and politician. From 2009 to 2010, he was the Prime Minister of Somalia. He subsequently briefly served as Somalia's Ambassador to ...

, former President

Sharif Sheikh Ahmed Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed (, ; born 25 July 1965) is a Somali politician who served as the 7th President of Somalia from 2009 to 2012. Before his presidency, he became the Chairman of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) from 2004 to 2007 and the A ...

, former Prime Minister

and Somalia's former envoy to

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

Mohamed Ali Nur among others.

Results

No candidate achieved the required two-thirds of votes to win in the first round, so the top four candidates (Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, and Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke) advanced to the second round. Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke then dropped out, reducing the field to three candidates. No candidate reached the required threshold in the second round of voting, and third-place Ahmed was eliminated. Hassan Sheikh Mohamud conceded defeat, negating the need for a final vote. Mohamed became the President of Somalia after receiving 184 out of the total 326 valid votes by members of the Somali Parliament, thereby defeating former president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. He ran against 19 opponents and was sworn into office on 16 February.

Notes

References

{{Somali indirect elections Presidential elections in Somalia

Presidential Presidential may refer to: * "Presidential" (song), a 2005 song by YoungBloodZ * Presidential Airways (charter), an American charter airline based in Florida * Presidential Airways (scheduled), an American passenger airline active in the 1980s * ...