“Somalia” became an international trending topic on twitter as news hungry members of the diaspora exchanged analysis. Although he was thousands of miles away, UK-based Somali journalist Hamza Mohamed was still able to witness and follow his country’s presidential candidates deliver their speeches in front of parliament with a few clicks of his mouse.
Thanks to twitter, he was also able to engage and exchange information about this week’s election directly with Somalis around the world.
Somalia, a country known for political instability and having the longest coastline in Africa, is undergoing significant  political changes.
The country’s newly formed parliament elected Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, a new comer to Somalia’s political scene and a grassroots activist, as the new president on Monday in the first election held inside the country for more than 42 years.
The new government technically ended a series of transitional governments that Somalia had since the disintegration of the central government in 1991.
Somali citizens are not yet able to vote for their own president for security and political reasons. Al-Shabaab fighters, engaged in a bitter war with the government, still control larges swathes of the country, and the United Nations continues to play a major role in the country’s affairs.
If Somalis are lucky, they might have the opportunity to choose their own president in the next election in four years time.
TV coverageÂ
Somalis, especially those who live in the West, are often news-junkies desiring up-to-the minute information from their homeland.
Source: Aljazeera
Filed under: Muqdisho | Tagged: grassroots activist, human-rights, Libya, london conference, middle-east, politics, religion, Somalia |
Somali News Politics Documentaries Music Videos Intertainment 
You must be logged in to post a comment.