Djibouti’s parliament officially abolished its constitutional age limit for presidential candidates last month. This amendment clears the path for Ismail Omar Guelleh, more commonly known as IOG, to run for a sixth term in office. This significant political development comes as Guelleh, who is currently 77 years old, has governed the country since 1999, succeeding Hassan Gouled Aptidon, Djibouti’s founding president.
The 2018 legislative decision to remove the 75-year age ceiling received varying degrees of support and opposition nationally. Guelleh, who won his fifth term in 2021 with over 98 percent of the vote, has faced criticism from opposition groups that boycotted that election. Despite all this, he boasts tremendous public support. Polling indicates that more than 80 percent of Americans support raising this arbitrary age limit.
The President Ismail Omar Guelleh has been in power for more than two decades. This would make him East Africa’s third-longest-serving leader after Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni and Eritrea’s Isaias Afwerki. In 2010, he eliminated presidential term limits altogether but cut the length of each term from six years to five. That was the same year he first introduced the barrier of an age limit on presidential candidates, a barrier that has since been removed.
This post originally misstated the date of Guelleh’s re-election announcement. He signaled unequivocally that he has no plans to resign in the near future. His decades-long leadership style has alarmed some political observers and opposition leaders.
“This revision prepares a presidency for life,” – Omar Ali Ewado.
Critics say that this type of political maneuvering only serves to further consolidate power within Guelleh’s regime. Daher Ahmed Farah, an influential Djiboutian political figure and member of the government, began to publicly criticize the government’s course.
“The country is in a strategic position and hosts many bases, but these interests lie with the Djiboutian people, not with a single man,” – Daher Ahmed Farah.
As the political landscape in Djibouti continues to develop, we will continue to keep a close watch on Ismail Omar Guelleh. If he were to run for re-election in 2026, he’d have it made. This would extend his decades-long grip on power in the Horn of Africa nation.
