Abdiweli Sheikh Ibrahim Mudey was on Thursday elected the new Deputy Speaker of the Somalia Parliament after defeating a close ally of the President Farah Sheikh Abdiqadir after voting went to second round
Mudey beat Farah 165 to 93 votes in an election that many analyst say is a preview of the Presidential election set for later this month
“The defeat of Farah is a yellow card given to the Damjadeed team and Hassan will take the red card” former Dep Defence Minister Salad Jelle told Radio Dalsan
The new Deputy Speaker was backed up by all the main presidential candidates except President Mohamud
Farah conceded defeat referring to Mudey as a brother and in what was seen as reference to the two coming from the same clan he said it was a win win situation as the position had been taken by a politician from his location
In the Second Deputy election Mahad Awad defeated Abubakr Baghdadi by 171 to 98 to clinch the position
The result yet again affirmed Sharif Sheikh Adan’s ability to pull strings in Parliament and analyst foresee a defeat of the incumbent president if Adan manages to come up with an alliance with the top candidates
The last three presidents of Somalia Abdullahi Yusuf in 2004, and Hassan Sheik Mohamud in 2012 and Abdiweli Gaas in Puntland 2015 managed to win elections through alliances
