Somali lawmakers go to 3rd round to choose next president

16/5/2022 4:16

        Somalia's presidential vote is proceeding to a third round Sunday, with the incumbent leader facing off against a former president.
        
        Legislators are choosing the country's next president in the capital, Mogadishu, which is under lockdown measures aimed at preventing deadly militant attacks.
        
        President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed and his immediate predecessor, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, will now contest a third round of voting to be decided by 328 legislators.
        
        The field has been whittled down from a long list that featured 36 names in the first round of voting. A simple majority is enough to choose a winner in the third round.
        
        Analysts predicted that Mohamed — who also is known as Farmaajo because of his appetite for Italian cheese — would face an uphill battle to be reelected. No sitting president has ever won reelection in the Horn of Africa nation, where rival clans battle intensely for political power.