Wednesday February 8, 2017
After months of delays, some 275 Somali MPs and 72 senators will on Wednesday choose whether to back President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud for a second term, or one of his 21 other rivals.
The electioneering process has been marred with corruption and vote-buying, but Somali’s are still hopeful for change, in the most corrupt country in the world according to a 2016 report by Transparency International.
The capital Mogadishu was on security lockdown on Tuesday after an increase in al-Shabab attacks in lead-up the vote.
The government dropped an initial plan to give each adult a vote owing to challenges in securing national polling stations. Instead, about 14,000 clan elders and regional figures chose the 329 lawmakers.