Djibouti votes as long-time leader seeks sixth presidential term | Elections News

Lawmakers scrapped presidential age restrict final 12 months, permitting incumbent Ismail Omar Guelleh to compete for one more time period.

Voters in Djibouti are heading to the polls to decide on their subsequent president, with incumbent chief Ismail Omar Guelleh anticipated to simply safe a sixth time period after politicians final 12 months scrapped presidential age limits.

Simply over 256,000 voters are eligible to solid ballots in Friday’s election between Guelleh, 78, and his only opponent, Mohamed Farah Samatar, the chief of the Unified Democratic Centre (CDU), a celebration with no seats in parliament.

At metropolis corridor, the place Guelleh is because of vote, solely a handful of voters had turned up when the doorways opened, with turnout remaining usually low within the early hours, AFP reported. Within the capital, Djibouti Metropolis, some polling stations opened late, the information company mentioned.

Human rights teams have accused authorities of abuses and repressing freedom of political exercise. The federal government has denied the allegations. Two of the principle opposition events have boycotted elections since 2016.

Polling stations will shut at 6pm native time (15:00GMT). Provisional outcomes are anticipated shortly after or by Saturday morning, in accordance with electoral authorities, as reported by the state-run information company.

A number of worldwide organisations are observing voting, together with the African Union (AU), the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the League of Arab States.

Guelleh has ruled the small nation within the Horn of Africa since 1999, when he succeeded Hassan Gouled Aptidon, the founding president of the nation with about 1,000,000 folks.

Guelleh gained re-election in 2021 with 98 per cent of the vote.

‘We’ve preserved peace’

Although Guelleh was initially ineligible to face on this election resulting from age limits, politicians eliminated the restriction final 12 months, paving the way in which to increase his 27-year rule.

“The scrapping of time period limits in Djibouti is much less about electoral competitors and extra about preserving regime continuity in a extremely strategic state,” Mohamed Husein Gaas of the Raad Peace Analysis Institute advised the Related Press information company.

“Whereas it raises considerations about democratic backsliding, exterior actors are more likely to prioritise stability given Djibouti’s crucial function in Purple Sea safety and world commerce routes, particularly amid ongoing tensions within the Center East,” he mentioned.

Stability was key in Guelleh’s election campaigning.

“Allow us to bear in mind we now have managed to keep up the steadiness of our nation in an unstable area. We’ve preserved peace when others have descended into chaos,” he mentioned final month.

Djibouti hosts essential military bases for the US, France, China and different powers, incomes it a repute because the nation with probably the most overseas navy bases. It is usually an essential port hub for landlocked neighbours akin to Ethiopia.

Since 2023, a number of industrial ships broken in assaults by Houthi fighters in Yemen have docked there.