[6] Salah Jama was born in Erigavo, Sanaag in 1980 and has later moved to India where he lived for some time before relocation to Ottawa, Canada where he earned a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Political Science and Developmental Studies from Carleton University.

[3] Salah moved to Mogadishu, Somalia in the late 2000s and has started working with the Ministry of Interior and Federal Affairs as a Senior Electoral Advisor tasked with implementing the Federal Government’s democratic agenda, including the formation of the National Independent Election Commission and the development of key electoral legal frameworks such as the citizenship and political parties’ Bills.

[7] In the absence of one-person-vote, the technical support team advanced public consultations and the subsequent political negotiations among national stakeholders that helped forge an agreement on the most appropriate Somali electoral model for the 2016 elections.

[5] Although there have been media speculations about his candidacy for the Speaker of the Upper House in the prior months, Salah publicly announced his campaign in April 2022 as an independent contender.

[4] Since assuming the office of the Deputy Prime Minister, Salah has presided over a number of cabinet meetings on the current challenges,[18] including the ongoing liberation war against the militant group Al-Shabaab[19] and the widespread drought that has been ravaging the country for over a year.