Somali lawmakers on Monday picked a new president, in what UN brokers have billed as a historic vote for the war-torn nation but observers fear will only return the same fractious and corrupt leaders.
Parliament Speaker Mohamed Osman Jawari, elected by his peers in August, was the first to cast his vote in the presidential poll where 25 candidates are in the running, including the outgoing transitional president Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.
The election is the final stage of a UN-backed process to set up a new administration for the war-torn country.
The new parliamentarians, selected last month by a group of traditional elders, rose one after the other amid tight security to cast their ballots in a packed room at the police academy.
African Union and UN security officials conducted body searches and fingerprint checks on all those allowed anywhere near the venue.
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