Many Mogadishu residents see Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed’s election as Somali president Saturday as their best chance in a while of emerging from the grip of political instability and civil bloodshed.

Hundreds of Sheikh Sharif’s supporters gathered in Mogadishu’s main stadium to celebrate the opposition candidate’s victory, chanting slogans and waving placards.

Taking the opportunity of a rare lull in the violence that has rocked the Somali capital for more than two years, many residents stayed up all night to follow the parliament’s vote on their television and radio sets.

“It was a fair election and the lawmakers chose the right leader at the right time,” said Abdi Ananug, an elder from the Bakara market area, one of the neighbourhoods most affected by the war.

“I hope Sheikh Sharif will lead this country on the path of peace and prosperity,” he added.

The young cleric, who comfortably won the parliament’s vote during a special session in neighbouring Djibouti, is fondly remembered in some parts of Mogadishu.

It was in the Somali capital that he rose up against the warlords who had been ruling the city for years and set up a Sharia court, generally appreciated by residents for its moderate judgements.

He unified several other such courts — although some applied much tougher interpretations of Islamic law — and gradually took over control of much of the Horn of Africa country.

Sheikh Sharif’s Islamic Courts Union brought a few months of relative calm to Mogadishu residents, but Ethiopians troops invaded in late 2006 to remove what they saw as an extremist Islamic organisation on their doorstep.

Sheikh Sharif was forced into exile, where he created an umbrella opposition group, most of which has since joined UN-sponsored peace talks with the transitional federal government.

Sadia Adan Wardhere, a young mother of three, said she hoped Sheikh Sharif’s accession to the top job would allow her to send her children back to school.

“He is an Islamic icon who worked hard to send Ethiopia out of Somalia through diplomatic means after two years of bloodshed. I believe peace will now come and my children will go to school,” she told AFP.

For his part Husein Madahey was ecstatic over Sheikh Sharif’s victory, arguing the Islamist leader was the only prominent Somali politician who could reach out to the hardline armed groups still opposed to peace talks.

“I watched the whole election process deep into the night and it was such a happy moment for me when he was declared the winner,” the grocer from Bakara area said.

“Victory,” “End violence,” chanted some of the supporters who converged on the stadium to celebrate the ICU leader’s electoral triumph.

“This is a rare opportunity which we must not waste. Sheikh Sharif is trustworthy and was the man Somalia’s political scene needed,” said Sheikh Abdiweli Mohamed, one of the clerics who spoke at the improvised rally.

After 18 years of almost uninterrupted civil violence, many Somalis however remained cautious and kept any hopes the election generated well in check.

“There are still many obstacles and the road to peace is long but I hope Sharif’s win will at least bring political change in Somalia,” said Mogadishu resident Shegow Nur Adan.