By ABDULKADIR KHALIF

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President Said Abdullahi Deni has been re-elected by legislators in Puntland, one of five federal states of Somalia, beating 10 candidates vying to lead the semi-autonomous region.

Mr Deni garnered 45 votes out of a total of 66, defeating his nearest rival Dr Guled Salah Barre, who got 21 votes.

Somalia's national government and federal member states have not had direct elections since 1969, when the dictator Siad Barre seized power.

Only Somaliland, which borders Puntland, has held direct voting. Somaliland declared independence in 1991 but has never been recognised internationally.

Puntland, on the northeastern side of the Horn of Africa country, however, held its first direct polls during local council elections in May, a move hailed as historic.

However, the 66 members of Parliament were elected through the clan-based ballot. The MPs, in turn, vote for the president.

Read: Somalia state reverses universal suffrage plan

In the Monday poll, President Deni faced 10 other candidates, including former Somalia minister Abshir Jama Haruse, who resigned from the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Ahmed Isse Awad, a former Foreign minister in the government of ex-president Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo.

Read: Puntland’s Deni jolts rivals with power structure

Villa Somalia, the seat of the Federal Government of Somalia led by Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in the capital Mogadishu, sent a congratulatory message to President Deni for emerging victorious.

Puntland is the oldest federal member state that was established on August 1, 1998.