Somalia lurches from chaos to an election long overdue
War and corruption have ruled for decades
Africa’s most chaotic country is struggling to elect its first democratic government in a half-century Wednesday.
Given its history of war and turmoil, it’s not surprising that Somalia’s fledging effort at democracy has been marred by delays and allegations of widespread corruption that include vote-buying.
Because of fear of violence, Mogadishu is in lockdown, the airport will be closed, and the vote will be held in a heavily protected former air force base nearby. Police said two mortar rounds fired by suspected extremists struck in the area Tuesday night, the Associated Press reported.
Since October, people have gone to polling stations across the country to cast ballots as part of a complex process to choose members of parliament who will vote Wednesday for a new president and prime minister.
The goal is to install the Horn of Africa nation’s first representative leadership since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre ousted a popularly elected government in a military coup in 1969. He was overthrown in 1991, and Somalia was engulfed in a bloody civil war — first between clan militias and then by the terrorist group al-Shabab, which continues to control swaths of territory.
“The last 25 years have been particularly bad,” says Michael Keating, the United Nations’ special representative for Somalia. This is “the first time since 1969 that the Somalis are attempting to put together a rules-based process ... to bring about a peaceful transfer of power.”
Though Somalis were promised a direct election for 2016, leaders instead designed an indirect vote: 14,025 delegates chosen by 135 clan elders elected members of the lower house of parliament. The elders chose the upper house members, and the two houses of parliament will elect a president and prime minister.
The country’s last parliamentary election took place in 1984, but it was hardly democratic: Strongman Siad Barre allowed voters only to approve a list of 171 members of parliament his regime had chosen.
The indirect process was created because Somalia has no court system to handle disputes and no national census to register voters.
Many Somalis fear a continuation of government by a powerful elite. “We are hearing corruption is high. We are hearing people have been excluded from becoming candidates,” says Mursal Saney of the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies in Mogadishu.
If the vote finally occurs Wednesday, parliament then can begin finalizing a provisional constitution and defining the roles of government positions.
“There aren’t often periods in a nation’s history where it has to design itself,” the U.N.’s Keating says. “And that’s what the Somalis are doing.”