{{Today September 10, Somalia’s parliament is choosing a new president for the war-torn nation in a secret ballot on Monday. <\/p>\n
A total of 25 candidates have each paid a $10,000 fee to contest for the top job.}}<\/p>\n
Some of the key candidates.<\/p>\n
{{SHARIF SHEIKH AHMED}} <\/p>\n
President since 2009, the former geography teacher is one of the strongest candidates, despite criticism by many that he has amassed a giant campaign chest through rampant corruption, claims he rejects. <\/p>\n
Former Islamist colleagues with the Al-Qaeda linked Shebab insurgents have since vowed to kill the cleric for leading the Western-backed government. <\/p>\n
He comes from the town of Jowhar and belongs to the Abgaal branch of the Hawiye clan, a prominent clan in central Somalia and Mogadishu.<\/p>\n
{{ABDIWELI MOHAMED ALI}}<\/p>\n
Prime minister in the last administration, the US-educated economist hails from the northern Puntland region. He is also seen as another possible winner.<\/p>\n
{{ADULLAHI MOHAMED FARMAJO}}<\/p>\n
A former prime minister from the Marehan Darod clan in southern Somalia’s Gedo region, Farmajo is reportedly popular on the streets of Mogadishu but is not seen as a likely winner. He was educated in Somalia and the US.<\/p>\n
{{ABDULLAHI AHMED ADDOW}}<\/p>\n
Former finance minister under toppled dictator Siad Barre and ambassador to the US, Addow hails from southern Somalia and the Habar Gedir sub-clan of the Hawiye.<\/p>\n
{{ABDIRAHMAN MOALIM ABDULLAHI BADIYOW}}<\/p>\n
A former army colonel and senior leader of the Al-Islah party, Somalia’s Muslim Brotherhood.<\/p>\n
{{ABDIWELI ELMI OMAR GONJEH}}<\/p>\n
Former deputy prime minister and transport minister in the transitional government, from the Majarteen sub-clan of the Darod.<\/p>\n
{{AHMED ISMAIL SAMATAR}}<\/p>\n
A formidable academic specialising in international politics and economics, a Fulbright scholar and author of multiple books on Somalia, Samatar took a leave of absence as a professor at Macalester College, in the US state of Minnesota, to contend for the top post.<\/p>\n
{{YUSUF GARAD}}<\/p>\n
A respected journalist who once worked for Radio Mogadishu, Garad retired as head of the BBC’s Somali service to compete for the presidency. <\/p>\n
After a first degree in Mogadishu, he studied in Italy and France, before completing a masters degree in international affairs in the US.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{{Today September 10, Somalia’s parliament is choosing a new president for the war-torn nation in a secret ballot on Monday. A total of 25 candidates have each paid a $10,000 fee to contest for the top job.}} Some of the key candidates. {{SHARIF SHEIKH AHMED}} President since 2009, the former geography teacher is one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[75],"byline":[334],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-3124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-homenews","byline-igihe-reporter"],"bylines":[{"id":334,"name":"IGIHE Reporter","slug":"igihe-reporter","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":334,"name":"IGIHE Reporter","slug":"igihe-reporter","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3124\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3124"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=3124"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=3124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}