On Sunday, Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, a former Somalia transitional federal president, was elected to the House of the People (the lower house of Somalia’s bicameral parliament).
Ahmed was the winner of a election held in Jowhar, the capital of Hirshabelle State, 90 kilometres north of Mogadishu.
The current Minister of Internal Security Abdullahi Mohamed Nur has held the seat, designated as HOP 146, for the past four years.
Ahmed swept through unopposed when his competitor Sharif Abukar Ahmed Sabriye dropped out immediately before the election.
As a result, all 101 delegates, who were chosen by clan chiefs and civil society actors, voted by show of hands for Ahmed.
Between 2009 and 2012, Ahmed served as interim president. Ahmed was defeated in the presidential election in September 2012 by his successor, former president Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud.
Both Mohamoud and Ahmed, as well as former Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire, are members of the Coalition of (opposition) Presidential Candidates, which is slated to oppose incumbent Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo in a presidential election set for May.
The presidential election, which will be conducted jointly by members of the Lower and Upper Houses of parliament, has yet to be set.
Ahmed thanked the delegates for electing him and promised to represent the constituency fairly in a brief post-election speech.
Recall, last week, News Central reported that Saadia Yasin Haji Samatar was elected as the first deputy speaker of Somalia’s House of the People (Lower House of the parliament) on Thursday.
In a highly patriarchal Somali society, Samatar is the first woman to be elected to the top leadership position in parliament.
Samatar received 137 votes in the final round of voting, defeating Mr Mohamed Ali Omar alias Ananug, who received 107 votes.
This development was after Somalia’s members of parliament elected Sheikh Adan Madobe as the speaker of the country’s lower house of parliament.
Madobe’s election comes 24 hours after the upper house re-elected its speaker.
News Central reported last week Wednesday that Abdi Hashi Abdullahi was re-elected the speaker of Somalia’s Senate, in a vote held in the country’s capital, Mogadishu
