Polls open in Djibouti as veteran ruler Guelleh seeks fifth term

Main opposition parties boycotted the vote leaving a 56-year-old political newcomer as incumbent’s only challenger.

Voting has begun in Djibouti where Ismail Omar Guelleh is seeking an all but assured fifth term as the president of the small but strategically located nation he has ruled for 22 years. Some 215,000 citizens are registered to vote in the ballot on Friday pitting Guelleh, 73, against a little-known businessman widely seen to pose little threat to the strongman, who inherited power in 1999. Polling stations opened at 6am (03:00 GMT) across the arid Horn of Africa nation, which overlooks one of the world’s busiest trade routes at the crossroads between Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.