Former Deputy Prime Minister Fawzia Yusuf Announces Her Interest For The Country’s Top Seat

Former Deputy Prime Minister Fawzia Yusuf has announced that she will run for the presidency in the upcoming election that is scheduled to take place this October year.

She was also Somalia’s first female Foreign Affairs Minister in 2012.

History is on the side of Fawzia who was born in Hargeisa, Somaliland and comes from a prominent and highly educated family.

Her father Yusuf Haji Adam is known as the ‘father of education’ in Somaliland and has taught many Somalilanders. He was also a pro-independence activist during British rule in the 1950s. Fawzia is also the great-granddaughter of Sheikh Madar, founder of Hargeisa, capital city of Somaliland.

The presidential election in Somalia will be held on Oct. 10, after talks by the country’s political leaders.

The upcoming election will be an indirect model. Special delegates, chosen by the country’s myriad clan elders, pick lower house MPs while senators are nominated by state presidents and then endorsed by local legislatures.