Opposition party leader Warsame secures seat in Somalia's Parliament

By Mohammed Dhaysane

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AA) – Abdirahman Abdishakur Warsame, leader of the opposition Wadajir Party, was elected to Somalia’s Parliament on Monday.

Warsame, a former planning minister, is a fierce critic of Somalia’s current administration, particularly President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed.

He was elected from Dhusamareb, a city in the central Galmudug state, paving the way for his run in the presidential election that will follow the parliamentary polls.

Somalia’s elections for lawmakers started last November and were initially scheduled to end on Dec. 24, before the deadline was extended to Feb. 25.

Amid widespread allegations of irregularities, Warsame’s election was viewed in the country as a test of the transparency of the ongoing electoral process.

“I thank the community and the people of Dhusamareb for the responsibility they have given me. It is the beginning of success,” Warsame said on Twitter.

Somalia has an indirect electoral process, under which regional councils choose members of the Senate, the upper house of Parliament.

This is followed by election of 275 members of the lower House of the People, which then goes on to choose a new president.

The elections have also been a difficult process due to the security situation in the Horn of Africa country.

The al-Shabaab terror group, which is linked to al-Qaeda, regularly carries out bomb and gun attacks in Somalia.

It has ramped up attacks during the parliamentary elections, killing at least five people and injuring multiple more on consecutive days in the capital Mogadishu and Barawe, the capital of the South West State, just last week.