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.
Western officials banged heads together in Mogadishu to forestall more clashes and force agreement. Polling should now end by 25 February, The country has stepped back from the brink once more as the tension eased between President Mohamed Abdullah Mohamed Farmajo and the man he suspended as prime minister, Mohamed Hussein Roble, on 26 December. After standing to one side, western powers, in the shape of United States Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee, and Britain s Minister for Africa, Vicky Ford, sent an unequivocal message to get on with the elections.
Farmajo s rival presidential candidates are so fed up with his manipulations of the electoral process they are calling for a boycott and mobilising their militias, Unable to negotiate with President Mohamed Abdullah Mohamed Farmajo or curb his manipulation of the polls to ensure he can return as president, the alliance of the presidential candidates opposed to him – the Council of Presidential Candidates (CPC) – has called on its supporters to boycott the electoral process.