By Ebuka Onyekwelu, Ph.D
Djibouti’s President, Ismail Omar Guelleh, has won the country’s presidential election with over 97% of valid votes cast on Friday, securing re-election for his sixth term in office. President Guelleh, now 78, has ruled the East African country for 27 years.
After initially announcing that he would not be participating in this year’s presidential election, the country’s constitutional 75-year age limit for presidential aspirants was reviewed by the country’s legislature and removed, paving the way for him to re-contest. President Guelleh was opposed in this year’s election only by one opposition candidate, Mohamed Farah Samarta, of Unified Democratic Centre.
With a population of a little more than one million people, the East African country strategically located at the Horn of Africa hosts an exclusive military and maritime base for the US, China, France, Italy and Japan, through which it makes a huge fortune, yet to reflect on their young population with over 70% unemployment rate according to an African Development Bank report.
Following his re-election on Friday, President Omar Guelleh will serve as Djibouti’s president for the next five years, when he will be 83 years old. For now, it is unclear what the president will do differently after almost three decades of ruling the country. President Guelleh is the second leader of Djibouti since independence in 1977.
