{"id":3135,"date":"2012-09-11T01:33:18","date_gmt":"2012-09-11T01:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/hassan-sheikh-mohamoud-is-new-somalia-president\/"},"modified":"2012-09-11T01:41:41","modified_gmt":"2012-09-11T01:41:41","slug":"hassan-sheikh-mohamoud-is-new-somalia-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/hassan-sheikh-mohamoud-is-new-somalia-president\/","title":{"rendered":"Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud is New Somalia President"},"content":{"rendered":"
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{{Academic Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud was chosen late monday by Somali Members of parliament as the country’s new President.}}<\/p>\n

The choice of Hassan has upset the pre-election favourite and turning a major page in the search for a peace that has proved elusive for two decades.<\/p>\n

MPs marked their ballot papers behind a curtain before casting them in a clear box in front of foreign envoys and hundreds of Somali men and women. In a surprise result, Mohamud won a runoff by 190 votes to 79 after the first round failed to produce a clear winner.<\/p>\n

Mohamud, 57, is a professor and activist who has worked for several national and international peace and development organisations including the UN children\u2019s agency Unicef. <\/p>\n

Last year, frustrated by Somalia\u2019s dominant clan system, he founded what he claimed was the first political party in Mogadishu, the Peace and Development party.<\/p>\n

Touching a Qur\u2019an with his right hand, Mohamud was sworn in as president within minutes of his poll victory. Ahmed, the outgoing president, conceded defeat after the onlookers in the hall spontaneously stood up and sang the national anthem.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am happy to see the first free and fair election happen in Somalia after 40 years,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to congratulate the new president for the fair election, and I want to declare that I am fully satisfied with the results.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outgoing prime minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, who threw his weight behind Mohamud\u2019s candidacy, said the result heralded a new era for Somali politics. \u201cSomalia voted for change,\u201d he told Reuters, adding it was too early to say if he would take part in the new administration.<\/p>\n

Among the countless issues in the new president\u2019s intray will be piracy off the Somali coast, which has led to millions of pounds worth of armed defences for international shipping. In an interview with Press in Mogadishu last month, Mohamud accused foreign powers of hypocrisy.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomalis are confused,\u201d he said. \u201cThe international community is putting a lot of resources towards it. Why not address the illegal fishing in Somali seas? People are getting the notion that international forces are there to protect the illegal fishing. The Somali fisherman cannot go to the sea because he will be considered a pirate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Referring to allegations that European firms dump toxic waste off the Somali coast, he added: \u201cWhy the international community not say anything? It\u2019s delicate.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Mohamud rejected the idea of offering pirates an amnesty. \u201cThat will only encourage more. They have to be given some incentive but not that. Give them skills and rehabilitation and the opportunity to learn a better life.<\/p>\n

Although Islamist militant group al-Shabaab has been driven out of Mogadishu, assassinations and suicide bombings remain a constant threat. As president, Mohamud will now be a prime target. <\/p>\n

He admitted: \u201cAnybody who lives here in Mogadishu always lives under enormous risk. We have a coping mechanism but it doesn\u2019t always work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fear factor is very strong. It makes the people quiet, it makes people behave differently. If we let the fear factor control us, we will never move ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mohamud has received threats from al-Shabaab in the past. \u201cSomeone called my wife to say, \u2018You\u2019ll have to take care of your orphan soon.\u2019 Al-Shabaab targets everybody who is doing something against them\u2013 a woman in civil society, a traditional elder, a businessman, a religious leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cAl-Shabaab is not an ordinary militia like a clan militia. It is an ideology. You cannot fight an ideology only. That is what the government is doing. Military al-Shabaab is defeated; the areas they control are because nobody wants them, but still the ideology is there. We need a multi-faceted war against them. If we continue like this, the suicide bombings will continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continued peace in Mogadishu is far from assured, he said. \u201cIf Amisom [African Union forces] left the state house, the president will not be there. Somalia doesn\u2019t have 100 trained soldiers capable of defending it. They are killing machines, trained in militia camps. They do not see themselves as servants of the people.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you go through Mogadishu, you can see it is different from 18 months ago. But the question is, how sustainable is this? It\u2019s still very fragile. Amisom cannot be here forever. We Somalis need to have our own security forces.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the interview, Mohamud presented himself as a political outsider untainted by the UN-backed transitional federal government (TFG) and its \u201cfailure of leadership\u201d. In July, a UN report said it had found that out of every $10 in revenue raised between 2009-10, $7 had never made it into state coffers.<\/p>\n

Graft had become endemic, Mohamud said. \u201cThe leaders see the state as a money-making machine. They don\u2019t want to confine their power. Corruption was an important factor that contributed and still does today.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the selection of MPs was flawed but his party had backed the process and a new constitution. Little guessing that he would emerge the victor, he added: \u201cIt is a defining time in Somalia. I\u2019m not saying Somalia will get what it deserves but it will be better than the status quo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mohamud graduated from the Somali National University in 1981 and went on to study in India, where he obtained a master\u2019s degree from Bhopal University in 1988. <\/p>\n

He returned home and taught as a professor, including at the Somali Institute of Management and Administration Development, which he helped found in 1999. Its goal is to train administrators and technicians who can help rebuild the country.<\/p>\n

The vote was seen as a culmination of a regionally brokered and UN-backed roadmap. There has been no effective central government control over most of the largely lawless country since the outbreak of civil war in 1991.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{{Academic Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud was chosen late monday by Somali Members of parliament as the country’s new President.}} The choice of Hassan has upset the pre-election favourite and turning a major page in the search for a peace that has proved elusive for two decades. MPs marked their ballot papers behind a curtain before casting […]<\/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-3135","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\/3135","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=3135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3135\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3135"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=3135"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=3135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}