Puntland Elects Former Somali PM as New President
Deputies in Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region on Wednesday elected a former national prime minister, Abdiweli Mohamed Ali Gaas, as the new president of an area still threatened by Islamist militants and struggling to shed its image as a pirate haven.
An economist by training, Ali was elected by lawmakers by the narrowest of margins, scoring 33 votes in the third round of polling, just one more than incumbent President Abdurahman Mohamed Farole, with one vote void.
The 66 lawmakers who cast their votes were appointed last month by clan elders in the poverty-stricken region, which forms the tip of the Horn of Africa and makes up around a third of Somalia's territory.
"I am very grateful for the support of my people who trusted me to run Puntland," Ali, in his late forties, told parliament.
Puntland set up its own government in 1998, but unlike neighboring Somaliland, it has not declared full independence. The region has struggled to rebuild after years of war, and in addition to battling pockets of al-Qaida-linked Shebab in the mountains, has struggled to stamp out pirate bases along its coast.
The conflict think-tank the International Crisis Group said it was watching the elections closely, as Puntland is the first of Somalia's federal units to attempt the tricky transition from clan-based representation to directly-elected government.
The rest of the war-torn nation has committed to make the transition by 2016.
"Puntland's experience shows that donors and other international actors also need to be heedful of local political realities, including support of elites, robustness of institutions and viability of electoral districts," the ICG said in a report published ahead of the polls.
The authorities were taking no chances with security Wednesday. Roads into the capital Garowe were closed and the area round the parliament building was closed even to pedestrians.
In early December a car bomb in Puntland's main port Bosaso, on the Gulf of Aden, left at least 11 dead.
Shebab insurgents operate from the Golis mountains southwest of Bosaso, a lawless region under longtime control of warlord and Shebab ally Mohamed Said Atom, who is under U.N. Security Council sanctions.
Shebab fighters have in the past launched attacks on military bases near Bosaso.
Six out of the 17 people who were initially candidates dropped out, many of them discouraged by a non-refundable inscription fee of 10,000 dollars.
All 11 candidates who stayed in the race were from the Majerten, itself a sub-clan of the regionally dominant Darood group. This increased the chances of the poll going ahead peacefully.
Elections were originally due to have been held in July, but were postponed by the government, which at the time said the risk of violence was too great.
The new leader was born in what is now Puntland in 1965. He obtained his first degree in Mogadishu and then headed for an academic career in the U.S., clocking up a string of diplomas over a period of almost 20 years.
He gained a doctorate in Economics from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, an MA in public administration from Harvard, a certificate in taxation from Harvard Law School and an MA in economics from Vanderbilt.
He went on to teach at several U.S. universities including Harvard.
Ali, who speaks English, Arabic and Italian as well as his native Somali, served as Somalia's prime minister from June 2011 to October 2012, and briefly afterwards as an lawmaker in the newly formed federal parliament.
Source: Agence France Presse
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