Mogadishu was virtually under lockdown on Thursday as thousands of Somali nationals turned out in their numbers to exercise their democratic right to pick representatives to the regional council for the first time in almost 60 years.
The streets were sealed off to vehicles while the airport, port and businesses remained closed as the city residents cast their votes in a historic move.
The Christmas Day exercise will see 390 representatives elected for the capital’s 16 districts who will eventually pick the Mogadishu mayor in the coming days.
Since 1969, when Gen Mohamed Siad Barre toppled the civilian government and imposed military rule, the mayor of Mogadishu has always been named by the president in power.
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After Barre was kicked out of power in 1991, leading to the collapse of the government with warlords taking charge, there have been no regional municipal representatives for the estimated 3 million residents of Somalia’s capital city.
On the historic Christmas Day poll, about 1,605 candidates were seeking to be elected for the 390 positions in the regional council. The National Independent Electoral Commission (NIEC) estimates about one million voters registered in April to vote in the poll, but only half that number was expected to participate in casting their votes.
Due to security concerns, the national government deployed more than 10,000 security personnel in the city to ensure the process proceeded peacefully despite threats by Al Shabaab to disrupt the historic exercise in some parts of Mogadishu.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was among those who cast their vote, terming the election a milestone and a reflection of political maturity.
Mogadishu’s council elections mark the first one-person one-vote elections to be held in Somalia in more than 50 years and are seen as a step towards universal suffrage and an end to the complex clan-based indirect voting system in place since 2004.
Thursday’s voting follows years of civil war that followed Barre’s fall in 1991, before the introduction of indirect elections. The objective was to promote consensus among rival clans.
Through the system, clan representatives elect lawmakers, who then choose the president. The president, in turn, appoints Mogadishu’s mayor.
An election official involved in overseeing the Mogadishu election was quoted as saying that the poll in Somalia’s capital was an indication that the country was standing on its feet and moving forward.
President Mohamud has been a strong advocate of the return to the one-person one-vote election and reached a deal in August with some opposition leaders stipulating that while lawmakers would be directly elected in 2026, the president would still be chosen by parliament.
Opposition parties have questioned the country’s level of preparedness for universal suffrage countrywide, arguing that the rapid introduction of a new electoral system would benefit Mohamud’s re-election prospects.
Also under query by some opposition figures is whether the country is safe enough for mass voting, given terror group Al Shabaab’s control over vast areas of the countryside and regular strikes on major population centres.
Many residents who braved the early morning heat to queue will be waiting to see how the electoral commission will handle the tallying process to gauge its ability to run the exercise nationally.
Since 2017, Somalia has tried to adopt universal suffrage in its electoral process without success. In both the 2017 and 2022 elections, the country had to revert to the indirect election. The system has been criticised for being manipulable and prone to corruption.
Mogadishu regional council election is a litmus test for the electoral commission to demonstrate its ability to run a democratic process and for the citizens to embrace the one-person one-vote process
Meanwhile, as Mogadishu went to the ballot, national politics were teetering on the brink of chaos and collapse as opposition leaders met in Kismayo and Nairobi to deliberate on next year’s parliamentary and presidential elections expected to be held in the month of May.
At a meeting in Kismayo, which brought together the leaders of Jubaland and Puntland as well as former presidents and prime ministers, the opposition demanded for dialogue on the electoral process or they would set up a parallel election.
The opposition has been rattled by the government of Mohamud, which seems determined to soldier ahead with the introduction of one-person one-vote to be used nationally in next year’s poll.
The opposition views the move as two-pronged, to advantage the incumbent or delay next year’s election and extend Mohamud’s term expected to come to an end in April.
The leaders called for broad consultations on the electoral process failure, to which they would have no option but to set up a [parallel election through the indirect process the country has used since 2004.
Puntland leader Said Abdullahi Deni and his Jubaland counterpart Ahmed Sheikh Mohamed Islam Madobe have led opposition to the country reverting to universal suffrage in next year’s poll, arguing that the country is least prepared for it.
The two federal state presidents have been joined by former presidents and prime ministers, warning that they would not watch as the country is dragged through a process it can least afford to handle.
President Mohamud has conceded to meeting the leaders, but the fact that he went ahead to have the Mogadishu regional council elections through universal suffrage, the leaders will be questioning his genuineness in steering the talks as a neutral arbiter.
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By David Okwembah