Somalia to introduce direct elections from next year

Federal government and state leaders agree to replace clan-dominated system of choosing leaders

From left, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud takes over from Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed at the Somalian presidential handover ceremony in May last year. Reuters

Somalia will start electing its president and other officials by direct vote next year, the government announced on Sunday, ending a system of indirect voting in the Horn of Africa country that has endured three decades of conflict and clan battles.

The move follows a pledge by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in March to end a complex indirect system in place since 1969.

"The basic principles should be that the election of the Federal Somali Republic must be one that gives the public the opportunity to cast their votes democratically in a one-person, one-vote system," the government said after reaching an agreement with state leaders.

The reform aims to "encourage the multiparty political system" that is independent and "corruption free", it added.

The agreement for nationwide universal suffrage was reached after four days of meetings of the National Consultative Forum, which included Mr Mohamud, Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre and federal state leaders.

Mr Mohamud, who has a five-year mandate, was elected in May last year by politicians.

The agreement also calls for the introduction of a single ticket on which voters would choose a president and vice president, effectively quashing the prime ministerial post.

"The premier post will be abolished and replaced with a presidential system where the president and vice president are elected directly by the people on a single ticket," the government said.

The first poll under the new system will be nationwide local council elections in June next year, followed by voting for regional lawmakers in November 2024, it said.

Somalia is struggling after decades of conflict and chaos, and is battling a bloody Islamist extremist insurgency and natural disasters including a punishing drought that has left millions facing hunger.

The country has not had one-person, one-vote elections nationwide since 1969, when the dictator Siad Barre seized power.

Instead, clan affiliations have been the organising principle of Somali politics, with influential roles such as speaker, prime minister and president divided among the main groups.

State legislatures and clan delegates also pick politicians for the national parliament, who in turn choose the president.

But rivalries between the clans have resulted in decades of strife and political wrangling, which in recent years have been exploited by the Al Shabaab militants aligned with Al Qaeda.