The big challenges facing new Somali president

Mohamud won Sunday’s competitive election held at the airport hangar, Afisyoni after defeating the incumbent Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo by 214/110 votes during the third round of the election.

News Keydmedia Online
16 May 2022

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Somalia's new president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud faces countless challenges that need to be addressed during his four years in office.

Mohamud won Sunday’s competitive election held at the airport hangar, Afisyoni after defeating the incumbent Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo by 214/110 votes during the third round of the election.

He served as 8th president between 2012-2017.

Keydmedia Online takes an in-depth look at the complex and most pressing issues in the long-chaotic Horn of Africa country which has been a functioning strong and effective government since 1991.

The incoming president’s key tasks:

1 – A comprehensive reconciliation: His first step is to reconcile the communities divided by the civil war and build public confidence and show that the Government is from the people to the people. 
2 – The national security: He should focus on rebuilding the army and fighting against the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab, the core threat to the country’s journey towards a stable, democratic and prosperous state. 
3 – The completion of the constitution: The lack of a constitution approved in a public referendum has been the focal point of the country's power struggles between the presidents and PMs for two decades. 
4 – The constitutional court:  Mohamud is to spare time to establish a Constitutional Court to resolve disputes over the constitution and its interpretation, in order to resolve political and election disputes.
5 – A universal suffrage: The citizens did not elect their leaders in the ballot boxes for over five decades due to 21 years of military rule and conflict. Mohamud should prepare for popular elections in 4 years. 
6 – Benadir status: The Status talk has been a headache for Farmajo, the outgoing Somali president after calls for autonomy grew dramatically during his presidency from 2017 to 2022. It’s a city with three million people, who were denied their rights to get Federal State in line with the Federal system. 

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