Somalia Selects an Activist as Leader
Source: NYT
Hassan Sheik Mohamud, a moderate political activist and academic, took on one of the world’s most challenging political posts on Monday after members of Somalia’s newly created Parliament elected him the country’s next president.
Mr. Mohamud’s election, held in a highly fortified police academy, was heralded as a significant step forward for a country that has endured more than two decades of war and political instability. He will head a fledgling government that replaces the internationally backed transitional administration that had been trying to get Somalia back on its feet.
“I hope that the problems of Somalia will come to an end and Somalia will now turn a new page and that page will be written with good history rather than bad history,” Mr. Mohamud, 56, said after his victory, which was marked by celebratory gunfire across the capital from residents hopeful that he will address the country’s brutal violence, famine and dire poverty.
Mr. Mohamud, chairman of the Peace and Development Party, came in second out of 22 candidates in the first round of voting and then defeated Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, who is the president of the departing transitional federal government, 190 to 79, in a head-to-head runoff.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/world/africa/parliament-selects-mohamud-as-somalias-president.html
There goes libertarian paradise...