Mogadishu votes in first local elections in decades under tight security

MOGADISHU: Somalians turned out in droves on Thursday to vote in local elections in the capital Mogadishu — the first by universal suffrage in nearly 60 years — with the city locked down amid security concerns.

The east African country is struggling to emerge from decades of conflict and chaos, battling a bloody group insurgency and frequent natural disasters.

Long lines snaked outside seven polling stations that an AFP correspondent in the capital visited early on Thursday, with those waiting impatient and excited to cast their ballots.

“This is a great day,” Guhad Ali, 37, said, proudly showing his ink-stained finger, proof that he had voted.

“I am so proud that I don’t even feel that I’m queuing,” said 29-year-old mother of two Shamso Ahmed, who spent hours waiting to cast a ballot for the first time in her life.

Thursday’s polls will serve as a test of the direct voting system championed by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, amid opposition from the country’s states who say it is a bid to centralise power in Mogadishu.

“This is the future of the Somali people,” he said after voting, urging every citizen to “take the path of democracy”.

The volatile nation has stepped up security ahead of the polls, with more than 10,000 security personnel deployed across the capital.

“This is history today, it is a day the Somali people have gotten a new door opened, so that we call on the more than 500,000 people, who have taken the voting cards to come out and cast their votes,” electoral commission chief Abdikarim Ahmed Hassan said while visiting a polling station in the south of the capital.

Mogadishu police chief Moalim Mahdi told reporters that “we are committed to ensuring the safety and security of the people” and urged “patience for each other as you cast your vote”.

According to the country’s electoral body more than 1,600 candidates will contest 390 local council seats in the southeastern Banadir region that takes in the capital.

Key opposition parties have boycotted the election, accusing the federal government of “unilateral election processes”.

Somalia’s system of direct voting was abolished after Siad Barre took power in 1969. Since the fall of his authoritarian government in 1991, the country’s political system has revolved around a clan-based structure.

Universal suffrage is, however, practised in the breakaway region of Somaliland, which declared independence in 1991 but has never been internationally recognised.