Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo speaks after winning the vote in Mogadishu, Somalia, Feb. 8, 2017. Former Prime Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo was elected new president of Somalia in a tightly contested polls held in Mogadishu on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Pan Siwei)
MOGADISHU, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- Former Prime Minster Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo was elected the new president of Somalia after the incumbent Hassan Sheikh Mohamud conceded his defeat after two rounds of voting.
Farmajo garnered 184 votes against his closest contender Mohamud who got 97 votes in the second round to emerge as winner. The third candidate, former president Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, got 45 votes.
Farmajo, a former prime minister in Somalia's transitional federal government between 2009 and 2010, thanked the electoral teams and organizers of the election for the success of the process.
The former PM and university professor fought off a tough fight which featured 21 candidates vying for the next occupant of Villa Somalia in the next four years.
Farmajo who holds a U.S. passport got his Master's degree in political science from the State University of New York at Buffalo and subsequently worked in New York State, including at the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority, the Erie County Division of Equal Employment Opportunity, and the New York State Department of Transportation.
He was appointed prime minister in 2009 by then president Ahmed to succeed current Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, who resigned from his post following a dispute.
He however had a short stint as prime minister before he was forced out in UN-sponsored talks in Kampala, Uganda following a rift between President Ahmed and the Speaker of Parliament.
In 2011, Farmajo founded a new political party, the Somali Justice and Equality Party, also known as Tayo where he served to date as secretary general.
