After a series of delays, allegations of rampant corruption and the abandonment of a promise to return to true democratic elections, Somalia was expected to finally elect its president Wednesday. It will not be an election as the rest of the world knows it, however. Having been elected to lead the country’s first federal government since the toppling of its military dictatorship and onset of civil war in 1991, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud promised one-person, one-vote elections by 2016. They would have been the first of their kind in the country for nearly 50 years. But he announced he was abandoning the proposal in 2015 due to ongoing security concerns. Instead, the next presidential vote would be conducted via a complicated system decided by clan elders, he said. Last year, 135 clan elders began selecting the 14,025 delegates to comprise the 275 electoral colleges, each of whom began voting in October for an MP for the lower house of parliament. Together, with the 54 members of the newly created upper house chosen by Somalia’s new federal states, they will elect a speaker and a president.
“This election model, unique in the world, is a stepping stone, a political construct to help us get to the next stage,” the United Nations special envoy to Somalia, Michael Keating, said last October. “It is the least objectionable compromise.”
However, the process has not gone off without a hitch and the U.N, African Union and European Union have already called the credibility of the election into question. During the parliamentary vote, some candidates were offering bribes of up to $1.3 billion to secure votes. There were also reports of electoral fraud, violence and intimidation.
Full Article: Somalia Elections 2017: Date, Candidates, News, Election Process Explainer Ahead Of Unique Presidential Vote.