Somalia faces presidential election under threat of attack

While the international community pushed Somalia to hold the election as a symbol of recovery, the vote has been marred by reports of widespread corruption.

By: AP
Mogadishu | February 8, 2017 12:15 PM IST

1 min read

Somalia, Somalia presidential election, Somalia president election, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, Somalia Islamist al Shabaab rebels, world news, indian express news

Somali soldiers prepare to secure the capital on the eve of presidential elections, at a police academy in Mogadishu, Somalia Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2017. Graft - vote-buying, fraud, intimidation - is the top concern in a nation that Transparency International now rates as the most corrupt in the world and Mogadishu is in lockdown because of the threat of violence by homegrown Islamic extremist group al-Shabab. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)

Somalia faces a groundbreaking presidential election Wednesday amid a security lockdown that has closed the capital’s international airport and cleared major streets. Fears of attacks by extremist group al-Shabab have limited the election to the country’s legislators, who will vote at a heavily guarded former air force base in the capital, Mogadishu. Rounds of voting are expected to narrow down the 22 candidates to a winner.

This Horn of Africa nation is trying to put together its first fully functioning central government in a quarter-century. Years of warlord-led conflict and al-Shabab attacks, along with famine, left the country of about 12 million people largely shattered. While the international community pushed Somalia to hold the election as a symbol of recovery, the vote has been marred by reports of widespread corruption.