Somalis to Vote Directly for President as Parliament Endorses New Electoral Law

GOOBJOOG NEWS|MOGADISHU: A joint sitting of the Lower and Upper Houses of Parliament have today passed the Elections Amendment Bill which envisages a transition from clan based electoral systems to universal suffrage in a move than drastically changes elective politics in Somalia.

The Election Act, which is one in three election-related laws set to be concluded before the end of the year, sets the framework for the conduct of elections of the president, federal member state leaders, and parliament.

For the first time in over 50 years, Somalis will directly elect a new President on a first-past-the-post basis meaning that the candidate who scores 51+1 per cent of the vote is elected president. In post-civil war Somalia, a joint session of the Federal Parliament elected the President on FPP model. Borrowing a leaf from Somaliland which also uses the winner-take-all model, parliament also capped the number of political parties in the country at three for a permitted period of 10 years.

Federal Member State presidents and their deputies will also be elected on a FPP option with elections taking place within the jurisdictions of the regional governments. Three political parties will field candidates for the positions.

The election of MPs and Senators will however, adopt the Proportional Representation model of voting. A closed-list system will be adopted in which case the political parties will submit names of preferred candidates to their respective chambers.

Elections for representatives from the break-way region of Somaliland will take place in Mogadishu as has been the tradition. The term of all elective seats will now be standardized to run for a period of five years.

The crucial bit of this electoral process is the unification of electoral timelines at federal and state levels. Already, a section of the FMS- Jubaland and Puntland have distanced themselves from major agreements including the October National Consultative Council agreement which birthed the current legislative processes.

Jubaland has since gone ahead with the composition of a new parliament ahead of presidential elections. In Puntland, the term of the current president lapses in 2029.