Islamist Sharif elected Somali president
February 2, 2009 by SAF Desk
Filed under News at a glance
After his election on Saturday the young cleric promptly vowed to form a broad government and invited all armed groups in the war-ravaged Horn of Africa nation to join the UN-sponsored reconciliation effort.
Sheikh Sharif, who chairs the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), comfortably won the vote held in neighbouring Djibouti, only days after the Ethiopian troops who sent him into exile two years ago completed their pullout from Somalia.
He defeated Maslah Mohamed Siad Barre, a general and the son of a former president, in the second round of voting, according to an official tally of some 430 lawmakers’ votes.
Sheikh Sharif, a former geography teacher educated in Sudan and Libya, ran in the election as the head of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS), an Islamist-dominated opposition umbrella formed in 2007.
The new president, in his mid-forties, was one of the main targets when Ethiopian troops invaded in late 2006 to remove what they saw as an extremist Islamic movement on their doorstep.
But after two years of deadly guerrilla war, the Ethiopians have pulled out with little progress to speak of, more radical groups have blossomed and Sheikh Sharif is seen by many as occupying the political centre.
Observers in Djibouti had tipped Hussein as a possible successor to Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, who resigned last month after a failed attempt to sack Hussein.
But the internationally-backed septuagenarian lacked domestic support and since he belongs to the same clan as Sheikh Sharif, Somalia’s transitional charter will also prevent him from keeping his job as premier.
Some TFG MPs had warned they would vote for Sheikh Sharif, notably those close to the former president.
The new president is expected to represent his country at the African Union heads of state summit which starts on Sunday in Addis Ababa.