Farmaajo urges inclusive election deal before Mohamud’s term ends

Saturday May 9, 2026

Mogadishu (AX) — Former Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo has urged the country’s leaders to use the final days of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s term to build an inclusive electoral process that all political stakeholders can accept, warning that failure to do so could deepen instability.

In remarks on Friday, Farmaajo said Friday, May 15, 2026, will mark the end of President Hassan Sheikh’s constitutional term, and he emphasized that Somalia now needs broad agreement on the path ahead for future elections.

Farmaajo also called on the federal government to release journalists and others he said had spoken out in defense of community interests during the current political tensions. He said those detentions violate Somalia’s constitution and laws, and he portrayed them as evidence of what he called a troubling political course under the present administration.

The former president also took aim at the government’s recent announcement of a housing project for displaced families in Mogadishu, saying it appeared designed to blunt mounting public pressure and unrest.

He questioned whether the initiative could realistically move forward, pointing out that no budget had been clearly allocated for the project even though only a few days remain in the government’s current term.

His comments come as political tensions intensify ahead of the May 15 deadline, with Somalia’s political actors still split over the electoral model and timeline despite parliament’s approval of constitutional amendments extending the mandates of federal institutions from four years to five.