ADDIS ABABA: Djibouti’s parliament removed the age limit for presidents with a unanimous vote on Sunday, its speaker said, opening the way for leader Ismail Omar Guelleh to run for a sixth term.
Guelleh, 77, has held power since 1999 in the tiny Horn of Africa nation, a major port that hosts military bases for the United States, France, China, Japan and Italy.
Djibouti’s lawmakers unanimously approved the change to the constitution to remove a bar on running for president past the age of 75.
The move allows Guelleh to run in the next election in April 2026, likely facing minimal opposition in a country with limited freedom of expression and press.
“The National Assembly ratified the removal of the age limit today, so it is official,” said parliament speaker Dileita Mohamed Dileita.
Parliament had already passed the motion a week earlier in an initial vote that was then approved by Guelleh and sent back to lawmakers for the final vote.
Dileita earlier said 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.”
Guelleh won the last election in 2021 with 97 percent of the vote while his party, the Union for the Presidential Majority, holds the majority of parliamentary seats.
He succeeded Hassan Gouled Aptidon, the father of Djibouti’s independence, in 1999 after serving as his chief of staff for 22 years.
Djibouti has only around one million inhabitants but lies on the strategic trade route of the Bab El-Mandeb Strait on the Red Sea.
Djibouti parliament removes presidential age limit: speaker
https://arab.news/b3hm9
Djibouti parliament removes presidential age limit: speaker
- Vote opens the way for leader Ismail Omar Guelleh to run for a sixth term
- Guelleh, 77, has held power since 1999 in the tiny Horn of Africa nation
Norway launches probe of Middle East diplomat and husband over Epstein links
- Mona Juul resigned from her position as ambassador to Jordan and Iraq
- Juul and her husband Terje Rod-Larsen played key roles in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations which led to the Oslo Accords
OSLO: Norwegian police said Monday they have launched an “aggravated corruption” investigation against a high-profile diplomat, Mona Juul, and her husband Terje Rod-Larsen, over the couple’s links to late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The police economic crime unit Okokrim said in statement that the probe began last week and that an Oslo residence was searched on Monday, as well as a residence belonging to a witness.
“We have launched an investigation to determine whether any criminal offenses have been committed. We are facing a comprehensive and, by all accounts lengthy investigation,” Okokrim chief Pal Lonseth, said.
Juul, 66, and Rod-Larsen, 78, played key roles in the secret Israeli-Palestinian negotiations which led to the Oslo Accords of the early 1990s.
Epstein left $10 million in his will to the couple’s two children, according to Norwegian media.
“Among other things, Okokrim will investigate whether she received benefits in connection to her position,” the statement said.
On Sunday, the foreign ministry announced that Juul had resigned from her position as ambassador to Jordan and Iraq.
“Juul’s contact with the convicted abuser Epstein has shown a serious lapse in judgment,” Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said in connection to the announcement.
She had already been temporarily suspended last week pending an internal investigation by the ministry into her alleged links to Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.
Norway’s political and royal circles have been thrust into the eye of the Epstein storm, including the CEO of the World Economic Forum Borge Brende.
Former prime minister Thorbjorn Jagland, is also being investigated for “aggravated corruption” over links to Epstein while he was chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee — which awards the Nobel Peace Prize — and as secretary general of the Council of Europe.
Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit has also come under scrutiny for her relationship with Epstein, which on Friday she said she “deeply regretted.”
On Monday, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store voiced support for the establishing of an independent commission set up by Parliament, to fully examine the nature of the ties between these figures and Epstein.
