2012 Somali presidential election
Indirect presidential elections were held in Somalia on 10 September 2012. The newly appointed Federal Parliament elected Hassan Sheikh Mohamud as the first president of Somalia since the dissolution of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG). The election had previously been scheduled for 20 August, the same day that the mandate of the TFG expired, but was rescheduled for a later date. Background Following the outbreak of the civil war in 1991 that saw the ouster of the Siad Barre-led government, many of the few remaining political parties gave way to autonomous or semi-autonomous regional states, or fragmented into feuding militia groups. After several unsuccessful national reconciliation efforts, a Transitional Federal Government (TFG) was formed in 2004 with a mandate leading toward the establishment of a new constitution and a transition to a representative government. Though there has been no government that has controlled the entirety of the territory recognised as Somalia since the Somali Civil War, there have been democratic elections in Somaliland and Puntland. In the months prior to the election, Operation Linda Nchi, backed by AMISOM, the military of Kenya and the TFG, pushed back Al Shabaab from Mogadishu and other areas to take control of bigger parts