Veteran Somali politician Mohamed Osman Jawari, a former minister, was elected as the speaker of the war-torn nation's new parliament, the outgoing interim speaker said Tuesday.
"After a successful election which was conducted in a transparent way, I declare... Mohamed Osman Jawari to be the speaker of the Somali parliament," said Musse Hassa Abdulle, the oldest lawmaker in the house.
The United Nations-backed process, which will culminate in lawmakers choosing the country's new president, is the latest bid to end two decades of instability in the Horn of Africa nation.
Somalia has not had a stable central government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, which sparked rounds of bloody civil war.
Five candidates began the running Tuesday for the post, but Jawari, a minister under Siad Barre, won the first round of the vote for the powerful post by over 40 votes to his nearest rival.
As he prepared to face a second-round ballot, the only other remaining contender -- former prime minister Ali Khalif Galayr -- conceded defeat.
"I have resigned and I am not running for the speaker of the Somali parliament, I am thanking all those who voted for me and for the others," Galayr told lawmakers.
The selection of speaker will impact the subsequent parliamentary vote for president, as Somali politicians have traditionally tried to share out the seats between rival clans.
Jawari is from the Rahanweyn clan from the southern Baidoa region.
Under the UN-backed process, members of the new parliament are selected by a group of traditional elders.
Around 260 of the legislature's 275 members have been chosen so far, the majority sworn into office last week on the tarmac of the capital's airport, protected by African Union troops.
The nearly 17,000-strong AU force has propped up Somalia's Western-backed leadership against attacks by the country's Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgents.
Bitter arguments have begun between challengers for the country's top job, divided along Somalia's notoriously fractious clan lines.
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