Why Direct Parliamentary Elections Without Institutional Neutrality and Self-Denial Risk Another Form of Elite Capture By Dr. Abdirahman Mohamed Abdi Hashi, PhD, CPA Executive Summary A significant and encouraging change is taking place in Somalia’s political debate. For years, the country remained trapped in a system in which members of Parliament were not elected by...
By Abdelkarim A. Haji Hassan Somalia has entered a period of political uncertainty since the end of the transitional period. The country is confronting a deepening constitutional and governance impasse, driven by an increasingly entrenched confrontation between President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and the opposition. At the core of this deadlock are two unresolved and closely...
By Osman Ali Hassan Mr. President, there is a photograph circulating on social and mainstream media. It shows a group of children, no older than five or six, beaming at their kindergarten graduation in St. Paul, Minnesota. They are dressed in caps and gowns, and a number of the girls wear hijabs. Recently, you shared...
Jigjiga (WDN) — Internationally acclaimed Somali football referee Omar Abdulkadir Cartan received a rousing welcome on Friday after arriving in Jigjiga, the capital of Ethiopia’s Somali Regional State, ahead of the highly anticipated Regional Cup final. Hundreds of football supporters, sports officials, and senior representatives of the Somali Regional State gathered at Jigjiga Airport to...
By Mohamoud Gaildon The president of secessionist Somaliland’s recent trip to Israel and the fanfare surrounding it were remarkable for the physical absence of the indispensable facilitator: The United Arab Emirates. The many-years-long “under the radar” cooperation between Israel and Somaliland―as Isarel’s Defense Minister put it at a meeting with the president of Somaliland―could not...
By Osman Ali Hassan The “kangaroo court” of Somalia finds itself as the most tragic and potent illustration not in abstract legal theory, but in the lived and often extinguished realities of Somali women-rights. In Mogadishu, the formal judicial system, lauded in international mandates and strategic policy documents, reveals itself upon closer inspection to be...
By Osman Ali Hassan My speech today is not a plea for understanding; it is a declaration of intent. It is a business proposal. To the people of Somali-land, I say: your destiny is no longer in your hands. You have entrusted it to me. To the Islamic scholars, I say: your fatwas are meaningless....
By Dayib Sh Ahmed The damage inflicted on Somalia’s fragile state-building project by entrenched political networks is so enormous and wide-ranging that it is hard to fully grasp. It runs the gamut from the hollowing out of public institutions to the erosion of core diplomatic customs, transforming sovereign statecraft into a vehicle for private extraction....
By Ahmed Abdihakim Yusuf For any democratic system to function effectively, political power must be balanced by strong institutions and meaningful oversight. Beyond the three traditional pillars of government, the Legislature, the Judiciary, and the Executive, a credible and principled opposition is indispensable. Opposition parties and political movements play a critical role in safeguarding democracy...
Mogadishu (WDN) — Somalia’s opposition coalition has reportedly presented the international community with a new electoral framework that could dramatically reshape the country’s political landscape and potentially provide a way out of the deepening constitutional and electoral crisis. The opposition’s electoral proposal, initially reported by WardheerNews, has now been formally unveiled and officially confirmed. According...