Somalia vote election banner background. Ballot Box with blurred flag
Hi Everyone,
I hope you all are well fine with fam+yourself and everything blessings.
And welcome to my new Moman’s Case Study blog legends.
Look today, I want to talk about my country where I was born before civil war; known as a nation of poets.
So this year, Somalia is going to have an election, for those Somalis who can’t remember what an election is, it’s this thing where people vote for who they want in charge. I have to give that explanation because the last time Somalia had a direct election the Beatles were still together. And the country even managed to get in a military coup of that government before the band up a year later. And if you thought that the Beatles breaking up was violent, that was nothing in comparison to Somalia’s election history.
So decades of unopposed leninist rule followed by a civil war later and here we are. And you thought the pirates were bad. Yes, there was an election in 2017 but this was an indirect election, which we’ll get onto it later, but basically there’s a guy, who votes for a guy, who votes for a guy, who votes for a guy, who votes for president. And in the meantime you’re too busy dodging rocket launchers to vote. And even if you wanted to, you can’t; Unless of course you’re part of the clan (not the one you’re thinking of).
The other thing about the 2017 election is that it was easier to buy than anything off amazon. The New York Times estimated that $20million had exchanged hands during the voting. And that’s without a single Russian rigging it. So calling that election an election is like saying a cannibal is a little fussy with his food. It doesn’t really tell the full story.
There were hopes that this time would be different when current President Mohamed “one the most popular names in the world” signed legislation in February 2020 giving all citizens the right to vote in parliamentary elections. But this hope went up in flames, literally, when biblical stories started to make a comeback with famine, locusts, plus resistant terrorist coward Al Shabaab who kept showing up “AK God 4bid!”. This led to delays, which led to unrest, which led to things being set on fire. Not great conditions for an election I think you’ll agree. Who wants their ballot paper spontaneously combusting while they’re trying to cast a vote?
“Damn you Black Hawk Down!”
This all came to a head when the president, like an annoying family member who won’t leave, decided he would extend his term by 2 years. Much like my mum when my auntie decided to stay for dinner, this didn’t go down well. Cue more unrest and much needed talks to try and bring stability to the country. But now we seem to be making progress. Albeit the sort of progress when an alcoholic stops drinking but has a fully populated wine cellar underneath him. We have an election date of October 10.
But then there’s the question over the indirect election that we mentioned earlier. This is the clan system where only 101 out of 15m people are able to vote or to put it another way 0.0007% of the population. Seems fair to me, although I am one of the 101. These chosen ones or clan elders chose parliamentary members and those members then choose the president. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that this system doesn’t really work out. If you’re young or a woman, sadly you can forget about having a say. Somalian Elections are basically the Academy Awards of Africa. But instead black people have a vote.
But why is any of this important? Well, elections mean stability and in a country less stable than a one legged donkey this is very welcoming. It’s not just Somalis too, because of the huge amounts of refugees in neighbouring countries with a massive part of Africa is really affected. Anything bad in Somalia is like letting off a nuclear bomb in your garden, your neighbours are probably going to notice. Stability also stimulates the economy as it’s a better landscape to start a business on. It’s not best practice to set up a shop on a minefield, unless you’re selling prosthetic legs. Then there’s your unfriendly neighbourhood Al Shabaab who thrive on instability and generally ruin everyone’s party. With 25k African Union forces funded by the US, The EU and the UK not able to control them, then a stable government needs to step in.
So this is the Somalian Election guys, a not so democratic process that makes US elections seem straightforward. The country needs this election to happen this year, preferably with the votes of those on the street rather than 100 old guys who probably forgot how old they are; “Respect Scholars!”. Some people love chicken, but I love Turkish kebab!.
That’s all.
so thank you for your patient reading legends. and take care then.
Kind Regards
Moe
#References:
Clan elections
Wanted a democratic election but clans couldn’t agree
Young people and women wont get voted by elders
Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo delayed election by 2 years, opposition weaponised Mogadishu fighting
Somalia want a vote.
Rest of the world threatened sanctions
Region
Al shabab – capitalise on instability
Refugees move to surrounding countries and instability flows into these nations African union forces (25k) not been able to clean up alshabab
diaspora – where refugees have scattered
Economy
Mogadishu is capital and telecom companies growing Economy needs stability – election can bring stability
What can change
Election important to break deadlock
Democratic elections promote stability
Hope that a new leader will promote democratic elections Hurt alshab
Black Hawk down Pirates
October 10th elections