April 10 (Reuters) - East Africa's Djibouti is set to vote for a president on Friday, with incumbent Ismael Omar Guelleh expected to extend his 27-year rule after parliament removed age limits that would have barred him from standing again.
The small but strategically located country, with a population of less than 1 million, lies along the Gulf of Aden at the entrance to the Red Sea and hosts U.S., Chinese, French, Italian and Japanese military bases. Since 2023, several commercial ships damaged in attacks by Yemen's Houthi militants have docked in the country.
Relatively stable, especially compared to regional neighbours such as Somalia and Ethiopia, Djibouti has been governed since 1999 by the now 78-year-old Guelleh. He was handpicked to succeed his uncle Hassan Gouled Aptidon, the country's first president after independence from France in 1977.
Under Guelleh, the government has invested heavily in port infrastructure and has become the main gateway to landlocked Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous nation.
Guelleh, whose lone challenger in the race is Mohamed Farah Samatar of the small Unified Democratic Centre (CDU) party, has won five elections, never with less than 74% of the vote. In the last election in 2021, he won with over 97%.
"Let us remember we have managed to maintain the stability of our country in an unstable region. We have preserved peace when others have descended into chaos," Guelleh said in public comments last month.
Human rights groups accuse the Djiboutian authorities of repressing political opponents, activists and journalists. Two of the main opposition parties have boycotted elections since 2016, accusing election authorities of lacking impartiality.
The government has denied allegations of widespread abuses and rejected criticism of the electoral process.
Samatar, whose party is not represented in parliament, has campaigned on cracking down on corruption, cutting wasteful government expenditures and boosting social spending, according to local media.
In 2020, security forces quelled rare anti-government street protests, which erupted after the arrest of a former air force pilot who had denounced alleged corruption and clan-based discrimination.
Last October, parliament voted to remove the 75-year age limit for presidential candidates and also scrapped a referendum previously required to approve a new constitution.
(Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)
