Somalia’s cabinet approved a bill that, if confirmed by parliament, will revert the country’s election system to universal suffrage for the first time in decades, ending a process of indirect voting.
Somalia’s cabinet endorsed legislation to allow a one-person-one-vote election system earlier this month.
The law aims to replace a complex clan-based indirect voting system that has been in place since 1969, when the dictator Siad Barre seized power.
The national elections law will direct the country to (hold) one-person-one vote elections,” Somali government spokesman Farhan Jimale told a media briefing on 8 August.
“(This) will give the citizens the power to vote and elect for the first time after 55 years. It is a historic day” he said.
Islamist insurgency
Under the current political system, which faces widespread insecurity caused by an Islamist insurgency and weak state structures, it’s the lawmakers who vote for the president, while clan heads and elders elect lawmakers in both the federal government and regional states.
Somalia was scheduled to move to direct voting in 2020, but squabbling among politicians and persisting insecurity across the country forced the government stick to the indirect ballot.
Plans for universal suffrage were first announced last year by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, following a National Consultative Forum set up to discuss political reforms, with the system to be introduced with nationwide local ballots initially due to take place in June this year.
Read more on RFI English
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