Somalia began a landmark national voter registration campaign on Sunday in the capital, Mogadishu, in preparation for local elections scheduled for June 30 — the first direct vote in the city in nearly five decades. Abdikarim Ahmed Hassan, chair of the National Independent Electoral Commission, announced that registration will officially begin on Tuesday, with citizens directed to report to designated registration centers.
This initiative marks a significant shift from Somalia’s traditional clan-based indirect voting system, known as the 4.5 power-sharing model, which has been in place since the early 2000s. Under that system, parliamentary seats were divided among the four major clans and a coalition of minority groups. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, re-elected in 2022, vowed last year to introduce a one-person, one-vote system nationwide — a key electoral reform promised to democratize governance in the war-torn Horn of Africa nation. The Cabinet recently approved two key bills to facilitate this transition, with direct presidential elections slated for 2026.
However, the reform plan has been met with fierce resistance from opposition leaders, including former presidents Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed (Farmaajo), who labeled the move unilateral and threatened to organize a parallel vote if the current process proceeds without broader political consensus.Despite these tensions, the government maintains that expandin g democratic participation is essential to stabilizing Somalia after decades of conflict, terrorism, and political fragmentation. The country has not held direct national elections since 1967. The voter registration campaign is being supported by international partners, including the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) and the African Union, both of which have called for inclusive political dialogue to ensure the credibility and security of the electoral process.
