Somalia rolls out voter registration after 56 years of electoral drought

Somalia President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was 15 years old in 1969 when Somalia last held universal suffrage elections.. [File, Standard] More than 56 years since Somali nationals last cast their vote in a one-person, one-vote election, the country's National Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission has embarked on a massive process of registering voters. Few in the country have ever voted in their lives, including the President, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who was 15 years old in 1969 when Somalia last held universal suffrage elections. The enthusiasm to participate in the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections scheduled for May 2026 has led to long queues in Mogadishu, with citizens defying the terror group Al Shabaab to turn up in large numbers and register as voters. Unlike in the past, when clan elders and delegates who selected MPs would conceal their identities by hiding or covering their faces for fear of Al-Shabaab, citizens are now turning up in huge numbers and boldly stepping forward to be listed in the voter register for local council and national elections to choose MPs, senators, and the president. In the 2022 election, clan elders and delegates - estimated at 14,200 - selected 328 MPs and senators, who then elected the president. The National Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (NIEBC) chairman Abdikarim Ahmed Hassan, and his 17-member team launched the registration process in Mogadishu, which is scheduled to run until May 15, 2025. "We shall then move to other federal states, starting with South West, Jubbaland, Puntland and the entire Somalia," Hassan said. Somalia has six federal member states: Puntland, Jubbaland, South West, Hirshabelle, Galmudug, and Somaliland. The chairman noted that in a country where State institutions completely collapsed after President Siad Barre was forced from office in 1991, more than 90 per cent of the population has never voted for any of its leaders. The Commission aims to register four million voters nationwide, with 1.5 million expected to come from Mogadishu alone. At NIEBC headquarters, the commissioners are holding a series of meetings, literally burning the midnight oil to ensure the registration process succeeds and that every Somali citizen who registers gets the opportunity to exercise their right to vote. "We have a lifetime opportunity to cast our votes for the very first time since we were born and elect our leaders to make them accountable to us," the chairman said in an interview in Mogadishu. The Commission, which has been in office since last November, is tasked with overseeing elections at all levels of government and implementing credible and transparent electoral practices. At one of the registration centres in Hamar Jajab district in Mogadishu, hundreds of citizens queued to have their names added to the NIEBC register ahead of local council elections scheduled for June this year. Abdishakur Abib, the Commission's elections operations team leader, was busy coordinating the registration process, ensuring that the elderly and the physically disabled were given priority. He noted that although no census has been conducted in Somalia since 1984, it is estimated that more than four million people live in Mogadishu. "We should register at least 1.5 million people in this city," he said, echoing the figure shared by the NIEBC chairman. He added that since the centre opened, they had been registering between 400 and 500 voters daily, and the number of people turning up had continued to grow. "Those registering will exercise their right to vote in June this year, when Mogadishu will hold its first ever council elections since 1969, followed by the election of MPs and the president in May 2026, and a referendum to promulgate the interim constitution," Abdishakur said. He said his centre was one of seven, out of Mogadishu's 16 districts, that had already started registering voters. To register, individuals must be at least 18 years old and possess either the newly adopted identity card, a passport, or be positively identified by elders.

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