African Arguments

Top Menu

  • About Us
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Swaziland
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
  • Culture
  • #EndSARS
  • Specials
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Debating Ideas
  • About Us
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate

logo

African Arguments

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Swaziland
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
  • Culture
  • #EndSARS
  • Specials
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Debating Ideas
Politics

Somalia: reject ‘indirect elections’, Somalis should settle only for the real thing – By Mohamed

By African Arguments
March 17, 2015
1540
2
Share:
Mogadishu_elections032

The government of Somalia controls enough of the country to hold free and fair elections (if it wants to).

About a month ago, an opinion piece advocating for “indirect elections” in Somalia in 2016 was posted on these boards. The argument is that the government is too incompetent and the security situation too flawed to entertain nationwide elections, and therefore the electorate should be drastically reduced to less than 1% of the Somali population.

For quite a while I procrastinated writing a counter argument for one main reason: I have heard this argument many times before among defeatists and loyalists of the current regime in Mogadishu. Rather than think of lasting solutions to the challenges we face in 2016, they look for an easy way out: maintain the status quo of holding what amounts to a mockery of elections, with cosmetic changes.

The post-transitional government has been arguably more incompetent than the preceding transitional governments. It has failed to meet key constitutional requirements such as the creation of independent commissions for human rights, justice, and anti-corruption; it has failed to meet security expectations, and it has further entrenched corruption at all levels of government.

Reducing the electorate is not only unconstitutional, but impractical and entrenches the culture of vote-buying: with fewer voters, it is easier to buy votes as we’ve seen in the past “˜elections’ where only 275 people could vote. It also raises a lot of questions rather than address the pressing issue of how to hold the elections in time. Who decides who gets to be in the 1% that will vote? Who decides who gets to be in the electorate-selecting entity? How will you convince 99% of the population that 1% have more rights to vote than they do?

The time that would be consumed in finding acceptable solutions to these and other questions that will be raised could better be used in working towards Vision 2016. Arguing that there is no time is a waste of time itself: there is enough time for registration of voters in government-held territory; whining that there isn’t time should not be an option.

The Somali government is in control of all major population centres in Somalia; Mogadishu alone represents more than 30% of the Somali population (excluding Somaliland), and Puntland also has a population closer to Mogadishu’s and is safe to hold elections. Major cities such as Kismayo, Baidoa, Beled Weyne, and others, are also firmly in government control. The situation is nowhere near as dire as Afghanistan or Iraq – and they hold regular elections.

Then there is the question of Somaliland, where there seems to be consensus that MPs from there would be selected the old-fashioned way by clan elders (FYI: money always changes hands). Again, this is a big mistake. There is no point in including “˜representatives’ who don’t represent their homeland. Besides, this will complicate the talks with Somaliland.

We have endured the humiliating process of “indirect elections” where a group of for-sale individuals have pimped out our representation without any input from us for the past 15 years. Anything but a free and fair general election is unacceptable.

Mohamed is a good governance activist in Mogadishu.

Previous Article

Magnificent & Beggar Land: Angola Since the ...

Next Article

What Chance for a Power Sharing Peace ...

mm

African Arguments

2 comments

  1. Yufus Issa 18 March, 2015 at 00:00

    Hello!
    Mohamed
    I have injoyed reading your opinion on 2016 election face for Somalia and to tell you the true I agree that you are 100% riht on this.
    Somalia it not ready to have an election yet the present government has done nothing good to show it own people that the country it ready for a second round and elect one man to rule our broken and confused mind!!

  2. Abdirahim S. Gure 23 March, 2015 at 14:06

    Very interesting article marked with unorthodox outlook of the Somalia politics. However, one caveat is that clan representation in the government controlled areas as well as in the other entities or administrations the writer mentions is not uniform leaving out some clans or sub-clans (even when excluding Somaliland) and they have the right to be represented in one way or the other in the elections. Besides, they may prefer the old-fashioned way.

Leave a reply Cancel reply

  • In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Credit: Hendri Lombard/World Bank.
    Editor's PicksPoliticsSocietyTanzania

    Tanzania: Everyone is scared

  • Politics

    African Arguments Editorial: Congo – elections alone will not fix this broken state

  • Politics

    African Energy Atlas 2013: oil, gas and renewables to the fore – By Magnus Taylor

The Africa Insiders Newsletter

Get the free edition of our exclusive look at this week’s most important developments on the continent.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!

  • 76272
    Followers

Interactive Elections Map

Keep up to date with all the African elections.

Most read

  • africa elections 2021

    Africa Elections 2021: All the upcoming votes

  • Africa coronavirus covid A woman in Mali wearing a mask. Credit: Photo: World Bank / Ousmane Traore.

    Africans don’t just live to die. A response to the New York Times.

  • eritrea Adigrat Street in Tigray, Ethiopia. Credit: Rod Waddington.

    Eritrea in the Tigray war: What we know and why it might backfire

  • In Aksum, Tigrayan region of Ethiopia. Credit: Rod Waddington.

    As a Tigrayan, my bond with Ethiopia feels beyond repair

  • west President Yoweri Museveni meeting with then IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde in 2017. Credit: IMF Staff Photograph/Stephen Jaffe.

    Museveni and the West. Relationship status: It’s complicated

Brought to you by


Creative Commons

Creative Commons Licence
Articles on African Arguments are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
  • Cookies
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • en English
    am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu
© Copyright African Arguments 2020
en English
am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu