Campaigns for Somalia’s presidential poll kick off

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By NATION REPORTER
Posted  Sunday, May 29 2011 at 21:39

Presidential campaigns for the Somali Transitional Federal Government have started in earnest after the UN Security Council ordered that the elections be held in August.

On Sunday, hundreds of Somali MPs and other leaders attended the launch of businessman Haji Mohamed Yassin’s campaign at the Laico Regency Hotel in Nairobi.

Expressing optimism of winning the seat, Mr Yassin said that unlike past presidents who contested the seat to acquire wealth illegally, he had enough resources which he wants to invest in restoring peace and stability in the Horn of Africa country.

“I want to be given a chance to take Somalia back to where it was two decades ago,” he said.

Somalia has experienced internal strife since the overthrow of dictator Siad Barre in 1991.

On Wednesday, a UN Security Council meeting in Nairobi opposed the extension of the term of the current Somali president and said the elections should be held before August 20.

Mr Yassin said it was unfortunate that he was launching the campaigns outside Somalia due to insecurity in the country.

He said more than a million people have been killed, 1.5 million displaced from their homes and others maimed since the fighting began.

The businessman, who first launched opposition against Siad Barre in 1978 and was defeated in the 2004 elections in Nairobi by former president Abdullahi Yusuf, accused past leaders of failing the country.