The Somali Parliament unanimously approved, on Saturday March 30, the establishment of direct universal suffrage and the transition to a presidential system. This constitutional revision concretizes the promise – often repeated but never implemented until now – of a vote according to the principle “one person, one vote” from the local elections scheduled for June 30, 2024.
The principle of direct universal suffrage disappeared after dictator Siad Barré took power in 1969 in this country in the Horn of Africa. “Legislators from both houses unanimously approved the amended chapters of the Constitution,” greeted the Speaker of the Lower House of Parliament, Sheikh Adan Mohamed Nour.
With this constitutional revision, the post of prime minister must be replaced by a vice-president, elected with the head of state on a single ballot. This change must come after the next presidential election, scheduled for May 2026.
An elective system source of instability
After the chaos that followed the fall of Siad Barré in 1991, Somalia’s political system was structured around the myriad clans and subclans that make up society. The elections have until now taken place according to a complex indirect process, a source of power struggles and instability. Since his election in May 2022 by deputies and senators, President Hassan Cheikh Mohamoud has multiplied initiatives to try to get Somalia out of the chronic instability in which it has lived for decades.
A first step was taken last year at the initiative of the semi-autonomous state of Puntland, which organized its district council elections according to the “one person, one vote” principle. This election was hailed and cited as an example by the international community.
But this constitutional reform is also criticized in Somalia, notably by the former president (2017-2022), Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, known as Farmaajo. “This Constitution, which must be implemented through an illegal process not accepted by society, will never be recognized as a legal Constitution,” he lamented in a statement.
