No winner yet in Somali presidential poll

Sun 10 October, 2004 19:51

By C. Bryson Hull

NAIROBI (Reuters) - A presidential election aimed at restoring national government to lawless Somalia for the first time in 13 years has gone into a third round after no outright winner emerged.

Seen by U.S. officials as a haven for militants suspected of al Qaeda links, militia-infested Somalia remains so dangerous that the interim parliament is holding the vote in neighbouring Kenya.

"This is a day when Somalia needs prayers," assembly speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan told the 275 MPs meeting on Sunday in a national sports complex in Nairobi ringed by armed guards.

"I am urging the international community to recognise the outcome of this meeting and I am asking the Somalis to support anybody who is elected."

Ethiopian-backed warlord Abdullahi Yusuf won a second round of voting but election officials determined he had an insufficient lead under the rules to clinch outright victory.

Parliamentarians gave Yusuf, the no-nonsense military ruler of Somalia's Puntland region, 147 votes, former finance minister Abdullahi Addou 83 and warlord Mohammed Qanyare 38, according to official results.

Yusuf faces off against Addou in the third round.

The poll, the culmination of a two-year-old reconciliation process, is intended to produce an executive head of state who will reimpose order on a country long a byword for anarchy.

The election had gone into a second round after no outright winner emerged in the first ballot, which was contested by more than two dozen candidates and was also won by Yusuf.

GROUND ZERO

Hundreds of thousands have died from famine, disease and violence since 1991 when warlords ousted then military ruler Mohamed Siad Barre.

Thirteen previous peace conferences have failed to stabilise the country of up to 10 million which is divided into clan-based fiefdoms.

"Everything has been destroyed. They are starting from ground zero," Kenya's ambassador to Somalia Mohammed Affey said.

Before the vote all the candidates signed a solemn pledge to respect the result and hand over any weapons held by them or their supporters to the new government.

They also promised not to disrupt the voting process itself. Fistfights, scuffles and walkouts have marred the few sessions the parliament has held since it was selected at a reconciliation conference in August.

Among the many possible pitfalls is the danger that a sore loser could decide to play a spoiling role as the new president prepares to establish his rule in anarchic Mogadishu.