Just one candidate with little political backing will challenge Djibouti’s President Ismail Omar Guelleh, who has ruled for nearly three decades, in its election next month, according to an official notice.
Guelleh, 78, has ruled the relatively stable country in the troubled Horn of Africa since 1999.
He will seek a sixth term on April 10 after lawmakers unanimously amended the constitution in November to remove the 75-year-old age limit.
His only rival is Mohamed Farah Samatar, according to a decree published late Wednesday in the Official Gazette.
Samatar is a former member of the ruling party and head of the Unified Democratic Center (CDU), a party with no seats in parliament.
“There is little doubt about the outcome of the elections,” a Djiboutian analyst, who requested anonymity, told AFP. Guelleh was re-elected with more than 97 percent of the vote in 2021.
Alexis Mohamed, a former adviser to the head of state who resigned in September denouncing “democratic backsliding”, was unable to submit his candidacy.
Mohamed, who is currently abroad, told AFP he had not received “security guarantees” to return to Djibouti for the process.
Djibouti is accused by human rights organisations of repressing dissenting voices, ranking 168th out of 180 in the 2025 press freedom index by Reporters Without Borders.
The International Federation for Human Rights has said elections “are not free in Djibouti”.
