A Somalian refugee who lived in Maine for well over a decade is returning to his home country to run for office.

According to the Portland Press Herald, 50-year-old Abdullahi Ail returned to Africa to run for president of his home state, Jubaland, after visiting it in 2021 and seeing the problems people faced.

“I could see the poverty. I could see the struggles of people in their faces and their homes, the places they go to and what they do,” he said. “I felt so bad for people.”

Ali left Somalia for a Kenyan refugee camp when he was 17 due to the Somali Civil War breaking out. While in the camp he studied sociology and public administration at the University of Nairobi. He, alongside a brother and sister, left the camp in his 30s via a United Nations Refugee Resettlement Program and ended up in Lewiston in 2009.

Ali then moved to Portland in 2011, earned multiple degrees including a doctorate, and eventually ended up founding the Portland-area nonprofit “Gateway Community Services” (as well as its sister nonprofit, Gateway Community Services Maine) in 2015.

But while creating a whole new life the US is a challenge within itself, running for president in Jubaland is a whole different animal.

“I am so hesitant to use the word ‘elections’ because that conjures in the mind of the reader a certain degree of political normalcy that we understand here in the United States,” said Abdi Samatar, a professor of geography and the environment at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.

Unlike the U.S system of getting on a ballot via signatures, ballot applications in Somalia typically ask for a candidate’s credentials, payment of a fee and a background check. However, the background check is sometimes manipulated for political reasons to exclude certain candidates.

In addition, the commissions are not legitimate because they’re typically appointed by the regional or national president, and the timelines for a turnover of power are not dictated by any particular law or standard, according to Samatar.

Despite this, Ali still has major reforms envisioned, including liberation from the terrorist group Al-Shabaab, bringing more transparency and accountability to government, and building up the economy and infrastructure. He says that while it would be easier and more comfortable to stay in the U.S, that would mean ignoring the other country and people that he cares so deeply about.

“I see it as being about something bigger than me,” he said.

To read the original Portland Press Herald article, click here. 

To check out Ali’s campaign website, click here.