Djibouti: Opposition Rejects Election, Cites Fraud | VoA News

Djibouti opposition leaders are rejecting the results of the country’s presidential election, citing fraud. Djibouti’s ruling party declared on Saturday that President Ismail Omar Guelleh won Friday’s presidential election, gaining nearly 87 percent of the votes. Three candidates who ran against the incumbent told VOA Somali the result was “false.” The independent candidate Mohamed Muse Tourtour said, “A national vote-stealing occurred, it is false and I will not accept it.”

Djibouti: Presidential Election 2016: Guide To Candidates, Key Issues, Rules And Results | International Business Times

Under the baking hot sun in Djibouti’s capital, campaign posters of President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh line the buildings and supporters clad in the ruling coalition’s colors parade the streets looking to win over voters ahead of Friday’s national election. With a divided opposition and no strong challenger, Guelleh is widely expected to extend his 17-year grip on power in the Horn of Africa nation yet again. Guelleh, who is nicknamed IOG, has been in power since 1999 and is seeking a fourth term Friday. He won the last presidential election five years ago with 80 percent of the vote, after Parliament amended the constitution to get rid of term limits in 2010. Guelleh, 68, is Djibouti’s second president since it gained independence from France in 1977. He was the handpicked successor of his uncle and the country’s first president, Hassan Gouled Aptidon, who died in 2006. Supporters of Guelleh’s ruling coalition, the Union for the Presidential Majority, are confident of an easy victory on Friday. “We are optimistic, especially when we see that the opposition party is straggling,” Foreign Minister Mahamoud Ali Youssouf recently told Agence France-Presse.