By Abdiaziz Hassan Giyaajo Amalo
The phrase”one man, one vote” traces its roots to 1961 in Somalia . It is a powerful concept.
For Somalia, such an election would have been the first universal suffrage polls in half a century. Somalia’s last universal vote was held in 1969, shortly before the coup that brought military leader Siad Barre to power. Following two decades of civil war and then rule by a transitional government, backed by the United Nations and the African Union.
The reality is that the federal government of Somalia controls only limited districts in Mogadishu and the surrounding areas, it has longstanding disputes with federal member states, Government did not try to having passed the citizenship laws, National census, giving reliable ID’s to the citizens and enumerating the polling places and districts throughout Somalia Proper. The party laws, the constitutional court are not established.
Having one man one vote in Somalia in 2020 is a delusional idea ever that President Farmaajo and his international community buddies came up with. It also shows that how international community are delusional about the perilous situation prevailing in Somalia such as widespread insecurity, fragile institutions and other challenges, antagonist attitude of federal government towards federal states, politicization of the National Army, and the growing concern about high level Government officials who are alligned with Salafi extremists and terror group Al Shabaab in decision making positions.
Somali Government didn’t put basic necessary measures in place to guarantee one person, one vote and if people aren’t able to vote Somali Government don’t care because they have their own foot soldiers so called Xoogaga Wadaniyiinta ( paramilitary forces) who’ll make guarantee re-election of President Farmaajo again.
Free and Fair Elections matter because they are important. And they are critical to ensuring that Somalia don’t go backward to civil war era and continue to have a successful voting day in Somalia.
It’s time to stop the delusional aspiration of President Farmaajo and to save Somalia from emerging disaster by supporting farce one person one vote election while the federal government failed to put in place any basic measure including the completion of the provisional constitution and election law and party for 3 years. The federal government lost the legitimacy to organize free and fair election mandated in 2020.
Abdiaziz Hassan Giyaajo Amalo
Email: aamalo@gmail.com
