Djibouti parliament votes to lift presidential age limit

_____________________

Djibouti's parliament voted unanimously to lift a presidential age limit on Sunday, opening the way for leader Ismail Omar Guelleh to run for a sixth term.

Guelleh, known as IOG, has held power since 1999 in the tiny Horn of Africa nation, a major port that hosts military bases for the United States, France, and China.

Djibouti's constitution says the head of state cannot run for office after 75, which prevented Guelleh, 77, from running in the next election in April 2026.

But an amendment to remove the age limit was backed by all 65 parliamentarians present on Sunday, speaker Dileita Mohamed Dileita told AFP.

The president can choose to approve the decision or call a referendum.

If approved, parliament will confirm the decision with a second vote, expected on November 2.

Guelleh left the door open to another five-year term in an interview this May with The Africa Report.

"All I can tell you is that I love my country too much to embark on an irresponsible adventure and be the cause of divisions," he said.

This vote is "not a surprise," Sonia le Gouriellec, a Horn of Africa specialist at the Catholic University of Lille, told AFP.

"There are protests on social media, but I fear that the opposition will not have the space to express itself in Djibouti," she said.

The state has a poor record of freedom of expression and the press.

Dileita told AFP the constitutional change was necessary to ensure "the stability of the small country, in a troubled region, the Horn of Africa, with Somalia, Ethiopia, and Eritrea."

"I think more than 80 percent of the population supports this," he said.

In April 2021, Guelleh was re-elected with more than 97 percent of the vote.

His party, the Union for the Presidential Majority, holds the majority of parliamentary seats.

Guelleh succeeded Hassan Gouled Aptidon, the father of Djibouti's independence, in 1999 after serving as his chief of staff for 22 years.

One of the least populated countries on the continent with some one million inhabitants, Djibouti plays an outsized strategic role in the region.

It lies opposite Yemen at the mouth of the Red Sea, in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, through which passes a large part of global trade between Asia and the West.