SOMALIA: Leading contenders for presidency

NAIROBI, 29 January 2009 (IRIN) - Somalia's parliament, meeting in Djibouti, is expected to elect a new president on 30 January, to replace Abdullahi Yusuf, who resigned at the end of December 2008 after prolonged differences with the prime minister.

Fourteen candidates are vying for the position but observers say two stand out. However, whoever takes over faces the daunting task of trying to rebuild a nation that has been at war for nearly 18 years, leaving more than one million displaced and up to 3.5 million people needing aid. Not only does the winner inherit a broken country but also the task of bringing in those in opposition that are not involved in the current talks, including the militant Al-Shabab group.

Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed In his late 40s, he is the leader of a faction of the Eritrea-based Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS). He is also the former chairman of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), which was ousted in late 2006 by Ethiopian-backed Somali troops. He is considered a relative moderate and led his group into negotiations with the Transitional Federal Government (TFG).
Ahmed started out as a former lieutenant of faction leader Mohamed Dheere until they fell out in 2003. In the same year, he helped to set up the SiSi neighbourhood Islamic court to combat rampant crime and banditry in the poor neighbourhoods of north Mogadishu. He comes from a long line of religious leaders. He is from the Abgal sub-clan of the Hawiye clan.
After falling out with the secular warlord controlling the town, Ahmed became a secondary school teacher in Mogadishu, where a gang abducted one of his 12-year-old students. The captors demanded a ransom from the boy's family - a moment Ahmed called a turning point. In 2004, he became chairman of the group, now made up of 11 courts and known as the UIC.

Nur Hassan Hussein In his 70s and popularly known as Nur Ade, he was appointed prime minister in October 2008 by Yusuf. Hussein replaced the very unpopular former Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi, who was blamed for contributing to the displacement of hundreds of thousands from Mogadishu.
He is considered a pragmatist and cautious. He is credited with overseeing the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops.

Hussein is a lawyer by training and a former police colonel, who, until his appointment, had been secretary-general of the Somali Red Crescent Society since 1991. Like his predecessor, Hussein is a member of the Abgal sub-clan of the Hawiye clan, which is dominant in Mogadishu and the surrounding areas.
Other candidates, considered long shots, however, include Maj-Gen Maslah Mohamed Siad, the son of late President Siad Barre, and former Prime Minister Ali Khalif Glayr, who is currently teaching at a university in the United States.
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