Somalia is choosing a president in a process that people here hope will bring stability after a dozen years of violence and chaos -- and 52 people are running for the top job, including the former dictator's brother and a soft-spoken millionaire who hasn't lived in the country for 26 years.
"The word peace is missing from the Somali dictionary," said wealthy businessman Al Haj Mohamed Yassin, the latest to join the field of presidential candidates in this Horn of Africa nation.
"It's high time someone stepped forward and said enough is enough," he told reporters at press conference on Thursday.
Somalia has not had a functioning government since clan-based opposition leaders joined forces to oust dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. They then turned on each other, reducing the country to a patchwork of fiefdoms ruled by heavily armed clan-based factions.
Although a transitional government was elected at an August 2000 peace conference in neighboring Djibouti, it has had little influence outside the capital, Mogadishu, and has been unable to disarm the gunmen. Its three-year mandate expired on Aug. 12.
After more than a dozen rounds of talks between warlords, clan leaders and members of the transitional government trying to end the chaos, the 366 delegates have agreed to create a parliament, which will appoint a president to govern the entire nation.
Ordinary Somalis won't choose the 351 members of parliament. That decision will be made the heads of 23 clan-based factions, in consultation with tribal leaders, who signed a cessation of hostilities agreement last October.
The goal is to select a parliament by next month, but the process could well take longer, and there is no deadline. Meanwhile, delegates are putting the final touches to the country's transitional charter.
The pool of presidential candidates is something of a looking glass into Somalia's past.
Abdirahman Jama Barre, brother of the former dictator, is running for the job.
Also in the race is Hussein Mohamed Aidid, a former US Marine and son of Mogadishu warlord Mohamed Farah Aidid, who managed to evade capture by American troops in 1993. A mission to apprehend some of Aidid's aides in October of that year resulted in the deaths of 18 American soldiers.
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
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Counting was under way in Nepal yesterday, after a high-stakes parliamentary election to reshape the country’s leadership following protests last year that toppled the government. Key figures vying for power include former Nepalese prime minister K. P. Sharma Oli, rapper-turned-mayor Balendra Shah, who is bidding for the youth vote, and newly elected Nepali Congress party leader Gagan Thapa. In Kathmandu’s tea shops and city squares, people were glued to their phones, checking results as early trends flashed up — suggesting Shah’s centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) was ahead. Nepalese Election Commission spokesman Prakash Nyupane said the counting was ongoing “in a peaceful manner”
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