Somalia to elect new president

Somalian parliamentarians will vote for a new president today in the first vote of its kind in decades amid fears that the historic election will be rigged.           

A newly elected parliament will convene at the police academy in Mogadishu to vote for the next head of state by secret ballot.          

More than two dozen candidates are running for the position, including the current president and prime minister, as well as prominent repatriated Somalis.      

If no one candidate secures a two-thirds majority in the first round, and a simple majority in the second the election would go to a third round.                

There has been no effective central government control over most of the country since the outbreak of civil war in 1991 and Monday's vote is seen as a culmination of a regionally brokered and UN-backed roadmap to end that conflict, during which tens of thousands were killed and many more fled.           

The vote is the first to take place in Somalia in decades and has been made possible by African Union, Kenyan and Ethiopian troops who have pushed
al Qaeda-linked militants out of more and more areas. As a result, many Somalis have felt it is safe enough to return to rebuild their country.