In today’s hotly contested presidential race with 35 candidates, former President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has been elected president of Somalia, beating incumbent Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo after three rounds of voting.

The announcement of the winner was followed by massive amounts of gunfire throughout Afisyoni Air Base in Mogadishu, reportedly in celebration.

The four candidates with the most votes in the first round advanced to the second round of elections.  The top two candidates in the second round advanced to the third round of elections.

Hassan Sheikh Mohamud (Somali: Xasan Sheekh Maxamuud, Arabic: ??? ??? ?????; born 29 November 1955) is a Somali politician who served as President of Somalia from 16 September 2012 to 16 February 2017. He is the founder and current chairman of a large political aggregation party with a majority of parliament in both chambers, the Union for Peace and Development Party. A civil and political activist, Mohamud was previously a university professor and dean.