Djibouti’s Guelleh set to win sixth term after age limits lifted

Friday April 10, 2026

Djibouti heads to the polls on Friday in a presidential vote that is widely expected to hand incumbent Ismael Omar Guelleh another term, after lawmakers scrapped the age restrictions that could have blocked the 78-year-old from running again.

Though tiny in size and home to fewer than 1 million people, the Horn of Africa nation sits in one of the world’s most strategic locations: the Gulf of Aden, at the mouth of the Red Sea. That positioning has drawn a rare concentration of foreign military presences, including bases operated by the United States, China, France, Italy and Japan. Since 2023, the country has also received several commercial vessels damaged in attacks by Yemen’s Houthi militants.

Relatively calm compared with neighbors such as Somalia and Ethiopia, Djibouti has been ruled by Guelleh since 1999. He was chosen to follow his uncle, Hassan Gouled Aptidon, who became the country’s first president after independence from France in 1977.

His government has poured resources into port development and turned Djibouti into the principal gateway for landlocked Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country.

Guelleh faces only one challenger, Mohamed Farah Samatar of the small Unified Democratic Centre (CDU) party. The president has won five elections and never taken less than 74% of the vote. In 2021, he secured more than 97%.

“Let us remember we have managed to maintain the stability of our country in an unstable region. We have preserved peace when others have descended into chaos,” Guelleh said in public comments last month.

Rights groups accuse Djibouti’s authorities of cracking down on political opponents, activists and journalists. Two of the country’s main opposition parties have boycotted elections since 2016, saying the election authorities are not impartial.

The government has rejected claims of broad abuses and dismissed criticism of the voting process.

Samatar, whose party is not represented in parliament, has campaigned on fighting corruption, trimming what he describes as wasteful government spending and increasing social investment, according to local media.

In 2020, security forces ended rare anti-government street protests that broke out after the arrest of a former air force pilot who had criticized alleged corruption and clan-based discrimination.

Last October, parliament removed the 75-year age cap for presidential candidates and also eliminated a referendum that had previously been required to approve a new constitution.

Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by Janane Venkatraman