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Sunday, January 18, 2009
newsinsidNAIROBI (AFP)--Former Somali prime minister Ali Mohamed Gedi Sunday announced he was running for the presidency, left vacant by his former political foe Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, who resigned last month.
"Somalia is facing a harsh reality that can only be resolved by a committed leader," Gedi told hundreds of people gathered for his presidential bid's official launch at a Nairobi hotel.
"I am not the only one who can overcome the current crises but I have a better experience to do so. I want to promote peacee and harmony," he said. "We shall not only concentrate on what happened in the past but aim at creating a peaceful democratic Somalia in the future," Gedi said.
Gedi, 56, was the first prime minister of Somalia's transitional federal government (TFG), from November 2004 to October 2007.
He resigned following a bruising power struggle with Yusuf, who himself had to step down in late December 2008 after a failed attempt to sack Gedi's replacement, Nur Hassan Hussein.
Somalia's parliament is expected to elect Yusuf's successor during a special session at the end of the month, either in the parliament town of Baidoa or in Djibouti.
It remains unclear whether parliament will have expanded by then from its current size of 275 seats to include members of the Islamist-led opposition group's faction engaged in peace talks.
The main politicians who have already declared they would vie for the presidency of the transitional administration include current prime minister Hur Hassan Hussein and former Mogadishu mayor Adde Hassan Gabow. Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the head of the Islamic Courts Union and leader of the more moderate wing of the opposition umbrella organisation Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS), also said he would run.
Other contenders include Hassan Abshir Farah, a former prime minister of the TFG's ancestor in 2001-2003, as well as MPs Abdi Abdulle Jini Boqor, Mohamud Mohamed Gulled and Mohamed Qanyare Afrah.
Source: AFP, Jan 18, 2009