Bombay Durpun - Djibouti leader claims sixth straight term

"Re-elected", the 78-year-old declared in a social media post as early results gave him a huge lead over his little-known opponent in Friday's election.

Guelleh has ruled the tiny nation of one million people for 27 years with an iron grip. He has made his name leveraging Djibouti's key location to turn it into an international military and maritime hub.

Its 23,000 square kilometres (8,900 square miles) hosts military bases and contingents from France, the United States, China, Japan and Italy, generating substantial financial, security and political benefits.

With about six percent of votes counted, an AFP tally of results announced by the election commission gave Guelleh more than 96 percent of the vote, putting him well on course to extend his term.

Mohamed Farah Samatar, leader of the Unified Democratic Centre (CDU), a party with no seats in parliament, had about 3.5 percent.

Guelleh won the last election in 2021, boycotted by most of the opposition, with more than 97 percent of the vote. He had announced he would step down this year but a constitutional amendment in November removed the upper age limit of 75 for presidential candidates.

Some polling stations stayed open an hour later because of delays opening at the start of the day. But few people in Djibouti doubted who would win.

Amid heavy security, Guelleh, widely known by his initials IOG, voted before noon at City Hall alongside his wife, while Samatar cast his ballot earlier.

"By the grace of God, we have arrived here, and we hope that this will end in victory," Guelleh told reporters.

Guelleh has plastered the capital with campaign posters and drew thousands to his rallies, while Samatar has struggled to gain support.

The national broadcaster aired one of Samatar's events, with only a few dozen people present.

"I'm going to vote for Ismail Omar Guelleh because he has a good programme for young people. I don't even know what his opponent looks like," Deka Aden Mohamed, 38, told AFP.

- Unemployment and debt -

Guelleh has faced little opposition since succeeding the country's first president, Hassan Gouled Aptidon, in 1999. He had been Aptidon's chief of staff.

In 2005, Guelleh was re-elected unopposed.

His candidacy is seen by some as offering "stability" in the troubled Horn of Africa region, but analysts say it is driven by the absence of a unanimously accepted successor.

The health of the president has come under scrutiny.

Despite claims by the Djibouti League of Human Rights that the vote is a "masquerade", people told AFP they were eager to vote.

"It's a duty to go vote," said Yussuf Mohamed Hussein. "I'm going to vote for the president; Samatar, I don't even know him."

Around 70 percent of young Djiboutians are unemployed and the country's development has come at the cost of substantial debt, particularly to China.

Djibouti is situated on the key Bab al-Mandeb strait, which divides the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden and is one of the world's busiest shipping routes.

The nation is accused by human rights organisations of repressing dissent, while Guelleh faces claims of favouring his own majority Issa ethnic group at the expense of the Afar minority.

A.Zacharia--BD