Voting began on Friday in Djibouti where President Ismail Omar Guelleh is seeking a fifth term after ruling the country for the last 22 years, reported Africa News. About 215,000 people are registered to vote and nearly 530 polling stations have opened their doors. Voting at the polling stations will close at 7 pm (16:00 GMT) and the results are expected by the evening.
Djibouti’s main opposition parties have decided to boycott the vote terming it as a sham, leaving Zakaria Ismail Farah, a 56-year-old political newcomer who is a little-known former army officer turned businessman, as Guelleh’s only opponent in the election.
At a voting center in the capital, election observers said the process was going on smoothly and all logistics were in place.
“Everything is going fine,” Mounir El Fassi, an observer from the Arab League mission, told AFP at one of the polling stations.
President Guelleh is projected to win in a landslide. His predicted fifth term will be his last, under a 2010 constitutional reform that scrapped term limits while introducing an age limit of 75, which would lock him out of future elections.
Guelleh, who has secured at least 75%of the vote in every presidential election he has contested, held his final campaign rally on Wednesday, urging voters to turn out in large numbers.
The Djibouti president, and his extended family, has controlled the country with an iron fist since he was handed power. His government successfully suppressed a rare wave of opposition protests that erupted in 2020.
The strategic tiny nation in the Horn of Africa is home to a population of less than a million people and hosts several military bases for world powers including the US and China.
According to the latest figures from the World Bank, more than 14% of Djiboutians live in extreme poverty.
