DJIBOUTI, (Hornpost)- The Head of State, His Excellency Ismail Omar Guelleh, has been officially inaugurated as a candidate of his Party, the Popular Rally for Progress (RPP), for the Djibouti Presidential Election in April 2026.
The softening of the President of the Republic by his party took place this Saturday, at the Palace of the People, in favor of an extraordinary congress of the RPP, the main political formation of our country.
A cheerful crowd, from all districts of the capital and regions of the Interior, also stormed the Esplanade of the Palais du Peuple early this morning to demonstrate their deep commitment to the pursuit of our common destiny under the leadership of President Ismail Omar Guelleh.
In a speech made at the tribune of this event, the Head of State said to bring a favorable continuation to his party’s grief wishing to invest him as its candidate for the next national presidential election.
“Lately, I have been hearing. I have listened. I have been observing. I’ve been thinking. The Council of Elders, the mobilization of our women, the call of our youth and our workers,” basically said President Guelleh, who said he could not “remain deaf and insensitive in the face of the widespread outcry coming from everywhere.”
“This outcry is the call of our nation to which I could not escape.” Through duty and patriotism,” said, in his momentum, the President of the Republic stating “the important emotion felt at the extension of confidence and esteem placed” in him again.
“Your choice to appoint me as a candidate of our Party honors me and deeply touches me,” said the Head of State, “heart swelling with gratitude, voice trembling with emotion… with a fervor imbued with patriotism.
Furthermore, President Guelleh made great use of this tribune to emphasize how aware he was that the conduct of state affairs assigns, today more than ever, in view of the profound changes increasingly characterizing our world and the emergence of challenges as new and pernicious, to more sternness and clarity.
“We are living in a time where local actions can have global impacts… where geopolitical strategies collide… where belligerent valleys resurface… “where the climate crisis threatens and bears the germs of widespread social deflagration,” said President Guelleh, for whom, however, our nation has already shown, in the past, its ability to meet much more important challenges.”
“I do not forget my fellow citizens that in more troubled times, it is your sense of sacrifice that saved us from the economic marrams and instability that was knocking on our door,” recalled the Head of State, revealing his readiness to resort to a “Collective leadership” placed under the sign of general membership.
“We will have to stop apprehending our future through the prism of an absolute end to not receptive to tribalism and those who cultivate a negative image of our country,” stressed the President of the Republic, reiterating his “faith in the ability of our nation to preserve.” “is acquired and to continue its steadfast walk towards the path of progress and development.”
Apart from the Popular Rally for Progress (RPP), the other parties that are allies in the Union for the Presidential Majority (UMP), namely the Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy (FRUD), the National Democratic Party (PND), the Social Democratic People’s Party (PSD) and the Union for the Progress and the Republic (UPR), took part in today’s Congress.
Better yet, they also brought their membership to the fact that the Head of State is the candidate of their political group for the Djibouti Presidential election in April 2026.
If this is a militant indication in the sense of greater political legitimacy, President Guelleh’s candidacy acquires a national doubling stature with the support he has given him, the Union for Democracy and Justice (UDJ), the main opposition party.
A first-rate political event nationwide, the RPP Congress devoted to the inauguration of its presidential candidate in April 2026 did not deviate from the principle of framing with the virtues of a plenary meeting in which all the leaders and activists of this formation took part politics.
Festive and colorful rendezvous, this RPP Congress has been animated by the different artistic and folklore groups of our country, who have not failed to compete with ingenuity to brighten the crowd and make the audience vibrate with the sound of patriotic songs.
An iconic figure in the national women’s landscape and an icon at the forefront of the mobilization in favor of the preservation of the gains of our cohesion and national development, the First Lady and President of the National Union of Women of Djibouti (UNFD), Mrs. Kadra Mahamoud Haid, also took part in this event.
Pictures of the event:
Prepared by:
Hornpost staff Reporter
