“The new president is a person with credibility. He has been in the country without fleeing in the past 22 years,” Hassan Abdi told AFP, noting that the new president had not “come with a laptop like those from the diaspora.”
Hashi stressed however that the new president faced a daunting task.
“There is some optimism about him but he has to gain lots of support” notably that of the international community and “there are huge challenges in front of him,” he said.
Pham said one handicap could be that the new leader “does not appear to have a force behind him, military or political. Thus he is weak in comparison to the real power brokers in Somalia.”
British Prime Minister David Cameron hailed as a “significant moment” the election of Hassan Sheikh Mohamud but warned the country faced a long road to democracy.
The Shabaab on Tuesday dismissed Monday’s vote as illegitimate.
“The process in which Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was chosen was run by the enemies of Somalia,” Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, spokesman of the Al Qaeda-linked Shabaab, told AFP.
“The process in which Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was chosen was run by the enemies of Somalia,” Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, spokesman of the Al Qaeda-linked Shabaab, told AFP.
He said the group had “nothing personal” against the new president but that “the whole process is like an enemy project.”
Hashi said some Shabaab leaders, who hated Sharif because they saw the Islamist outgoing president as a traitor, might be less harsh on Hassan.
Ahmed Soliman noted that under the transitional authorities, bringing the Shabaab to the negotiating table had been discouraged, notably by Britain, the United States and the UN Office for Somalia.
“For there to be lasting peace… Shabaab needs to be incorporated into future dialogue. If Hassan Sheikh Mohamud is able to maintain good links with the Shabaab and bring them to the table for dialogue that would be a positive step.”
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