Parliament looks like picking a new president on 15 May because the incumbent has alienated far too many MPs, Looked at from the perspective of last April, the latest political developments seem improbable, even absurd. A year ago Mogadishu was on a war footing and President Mohamed Abdullah Mohamed Farmajo was doing everything in his power to stay on, even if it meant damaging national institutions carefully built up over the years and factionalising the security forces. Some in Mogadishu even accuse him of conspiring with Al Shabaab to postpone the polls by allowing bomb attacks.