Somalia's New President: A Victory for Islamic Groups

On Monday, Somalia selected a new president, Hassan Sh. Mohamoud, an Islamist. Mohamoud has been an Islamic activist for a long time. He is counted as one of the sympathizers of the New Blood, a group of Islamists who broke away from al-Islah, Somalia’s Muslim Brotherhood, during the reign of the Islamic Courts Union. I use the word “counted,” because there is no record of Mohamoud as a member of any Islamic group. What is not in doubt is the fact that he is an Islamist of the Muslim Brotherhood persuasion. Rival candidate Abdurrahman Baadiyow, on the other hand, has been a member of al-Islah more than two decades.

One phenomenon that was apparent during Monday’s selection process was the prevalence of Islamists among the candidates best able to generate votes in the first round of the election. For instance, four of the six highest vote getters were Islamists: Hassan Sh. Mohamoud, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, Abdurrahman Baadiyow, and Abdulkhadir Ossoble. Each of these four candidates is believed to represent four different trends: Tajamuc or Ala-Sheikh (Shaikh Sharif), al-Islah (Baadiyow), Ossoble (al-Ictisaam) and Mohamoud (the New Blood). Professor Afyare Elmi of Qatar University was prescient when he predicted in 2010 that Islamists would rule Somalia one day. The Arab Spring has brought the Islamic movements to the forefront of political power.

One can confidently say that the four Islamists did a remarkable job garnering votes. Baadiyow was articulate and bold in his presidential campaign speech before the Somali parliament which he declared that the current Transitional Federal Government leaders were failures. He did not get the votes that he had hoped; the recent turmoil in al-Islah did not make things easier for him. The good news is that the Islamists are more likely to learn from this new political experience. Still, the Islamists in Somalia have not reached the level at which they can mobilize the masses for political purposes and win elections. They are in an early stage where personality dominates the political process rather than the institutions. The new president did not win because he is the founder/leader of a political party called Peace and Development Party (PDP). He won, in part, by forging alliances with various clans and capitalizing on the lawmakers’ dissatisfaction with the status quo.

Somalia, like Tunisia and Egypt, will test Islamist leaders who are at the helm. Muslims in these countries have granted Islamists a chance because they see them as clean and not corrupt. Now, the ball is in the courts of the Islamists. Will they rule by building coalitions and leading by example? Will they be tolerant, unifiers, and fight for justice and equality before the law?

Many Somalis are optimistic that Somalia is headed in the right direction. It was impossible, two years ago, to move around Mogadishu safely. Today, the country is enjoying relative peace, and the days of chaos, political cannibalism, and warlords are behind us. US Republican Senator Mitch McConnell said in 2010 that he wanted President Obama to fail. Many of us, on the contrary, are praying for Somalia’s new president to succeed.