DJIBOUTI (Sh. M. Network)-The chairman of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia Sheik Sharif Ahmed won the Somali presidential election in neighbouring Djibouti, officials said on Saturday.

Legislators applauded, and Sharif Sheik Ahmed smiled and rose his arms aloft, after winning the election around 4 a.m. local time during a run-off vote in an all-night parliament session.

Parliament speaker Sheik Adan Mohamed Nor announced the results.

“Candidate Masalah Mohamed Siad got 126 votes out of 421 and Sharif Sheik Ahmed found 293, so Sharif Sheik Ahmed won the election and he is the legitimate Somali president,” said Sheik Adan Mohamed Nor.

Sheik Sharif, who headed the Islamic Courts Union that ruled Mogadishu and most of south Somalia in 2006 before an Ethiopian military intervention, defeated Maslah Mohamed Siad, son of late Dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, in the second round of voting got.

“Somalia a place where poor people who need a helping hand live, but it is not a place where the world is invaded,” said the elected president Sharif Sheik Ahmed minutes after his election.

Analysts say that Sheik Sahrif Sheik Ahmed will have the best chance to unite Somalis, given his Islamist roots and acceptability to other sides. Reconciling Somalia's 10 million people and stopping 18 years of bloodshed in the Horn of Africa nation would, however, remain a daunting task even for him.

The new Somali leader is expected to make his debut at Sunday's opening of a continental summit in Addis Ababa, the African Union headquarters

U.N. envoy to Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, hailed Saturday's vote and called for a spirit of reconciliation.

"I hope and I am sure that the international community will lend its cooperation to the new authorities provided they demonstrate their determination to promote a stable and tolerant Somalia," he said minutes after the election.

By Ahmednor Mohamed Farah

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