Djibouti's minister of the interior has announced that President Ismail Omar Guelleh has won Friday's presidential election with nearly 87 percent of the vote.
Interior Minister Hassan Omar Mohamed told VOA (Somali service) the vote count is complete and President Guelleh has won outright in the first round of the election, giving him another five-year term in office - his fourth consecutive term since 1999.
His nearest rival was Omar Elmi Khaire of the Union for National Salvation, who got just over 7 percent of the votes.
Some opposition parties boycotted the election after Guelleh, who was always the clear front-runner, went back on his earlier decision not to run.
Opposition supporters dispute the vote, saying some voters were turned away from polling stations. Opposition leaders have complained of police brutality in the weeks leading up to the election, and say the media covers them unfairly.
Djibouti is very small, but it carries influence internationally because of its location as a port on the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest shipping routes. The U.S. military has its only permanent base in Africa in Djibouti.
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Complaints surfaced about election irregularities when polls opened early Friday. Two opposition politicians accused the government of removing their representatives from polling stations. They also accused soldiers of voting in stations where they are not supposed to.
“The irregularities have started after 9 a.m. There are 4,000 soldiers brought deployed in Ali Sabeih to vote at polling stations, our delegates were removed from the polling stations,” said Omar Elmi Khaire of the Union for National Salvation (USN) opposition umbrella.
“In Obolley (village) there are only 55 people who are registered to vote but there are now 500 soldiers who are voting, our delegates were ejected,” he said.
Another opposition politician, Mohamed Muse Tourtour, an independent candidate, repeated similar accusations. He told VOA (Somali) that he reported the issue to the Interior Ministry, which he says assured him the claims be will investigated.
The main opposition coalition is being further hampered by fractures in leadership. Guelleh’s two main opponents, Mohamed Daoud Chehem and Omar Elmi Khaireh, both claim to represent the USN opposition coalition.
The seven-party opposition coalition has also experienced a split in its ranks, with three of its member parties breaking from the planned election boycott.
Opposition leaders are particularly concerned about the legitimacy of the election oversight agency, which they say is rife with fraud. In 2013, following the parliamentary elections that saw Guelleh’s party win with 49 percent of the vote, his rivals demanded that an independent election commission be established. The commission has not been created.
Guelleh won his last election in 2011 with 80 percent of the vote. In order for Guelleh to win that election parliament had to change the country’s constitution because presidents were limited to two terms.
VOA Somali service contributed to this report.
