Somali capital holds first direct election in five decades

Somali capital holds first direct election in five decades People in Mogadishu vote in first direct local polls in 56 years amid opposition boycotts. Residents of Somalia’s capital are casting ballots in local council elections, marking the first time in more than 50 years that voters will directly choose their representatives, a milestone overshadowed by opposition boycotts. Polling stations across Mogadishu opened at 6am local time (03:00 GMT) on Thursday, with lines forming early as Somalis queued to participate in what President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has called a “new chapter in the country’s history”. Recommended Stories list of 2 items list 1 of 2 Somalia’s 2026 election risks a legitimacy crisis list 2 of 2 Trump recalls dozens of career diplomats in ‘America First’ push About half a million people registered to vote for 390 district council seats, with approximately 1,605 candidates competing across 523 polling stations in the capital. Authorities deployed close to 10,000 police officers and imposed a city-wide lockdown, restricting vehicle and pedestrian movement, as well as stopping flights into the city’s main airport. Security in Somalia’s capital has improved this year, but the government continues to battle the al-Qaeda-affiliated armed group al-Shabab, which carried out a major attack in October. Information Minister Daud Aweis described the election as a “resurgence of democratic practices” after decades without them, while electoral commission chairman Abdikarim Ahmed Hassan assured voters they could trust security measures “100 percent”. Somalia last held direct elections in 1969, months before an October military coup that kept civilians out of power for the next three decades. After years of civil war following military leader Mohamed Siad Barre’s fall in 1991, the country adopted an unpopular indirect, clan-based electoral system in 2004, in which clan representatives select politicians, who in turn choose the president. The process has historically been deeply contested by candidates seeking top office. The incumbent president, Mohamud, who won power twice through this system, announced in 2023 his commitment to transition to universal suffrage at the local, federal and presidential level. His government secured parliamentary approval for constitutional reforms and established a national electoral commission to oversee the transition, a move that has galvanised major opposition figures, including two former presidents. An agreement reached in October 2024 between federal and regional leaders collapsed amid bitter opposition, complicating upcoming presidential polls. ‘More of a symbolic vote’ Prominent opposition figures have openly criticised the Mogadishu vote and the government’s overall trajectory, accusing it of excluding them from the electoral process. Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed described the procedures as “unfortunate,” attacking what he called an “exclusionary voter registration process” that lacks legitimacy. Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, known as Farmaajo, claimed the process “opens the door to dangers that threaten the security of the country”. Two important federal member states, Puntland in the north and Jubbaland, bordering Kenya, have rejected the framework outright. Major opposition figures, including the leaders of those federal states, met in the port city of Kismayo earlier this month, issuing a communique in which...

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