Ruling Alliance Candidate Elected President of Djibouti

The candidate of Djibouti’s ruling alliance, Ismail Omar Guelleh, has been elected president of this small country on the Horn of Africa, the head of the electoral commission announced today.

Ismail Omar won Friday with about 70% of the vote and will become Djibouti’s second president since independence, said Interior Minister Elmi Obsieh Wais, who heads the commission.

He defeated opposition-backed Moussa Ahmed Idriss and will succeed veteran leader Hassan Gouled Aptidon, 83, who has run Djibouti since independence from France in 1977.

Ismail Omar, 52, worked for two decades as Cabinet director in Hassan Gouled’s office and was also the head of the security services.

An estimated 171,000 registered voters in this country of 620,000 people cast either green ballots for the government candidate or white for the opposition candidate.

Ismail Omar, the president’s nephew and designated successor, promised jobs and wealth if he was elected. Moussa Ahmed pledged to purge the government of corruption and to bring true democracy to a country he says has been ruled autocratically since independence.

Twenty international observers, including representatives from the United States and Canada, monitored the vote in the 111 polling stations in the town of Djibouti and the 95 in the four outlying districts.