By Najeb Ahmed
The 2018 Election Campaigns:
The state is facing critical times as the election fever are felt across the board throughout regions. In Garowe, almost all the hotels are already fully reserved to accommodate the new influx of visitors and candidate supporters from across the regions arrive day-in-day-out en masse to the capital city. As you walk around the city; the first election indicators one would conspicuously set eyes on includes; a mosaic of massive election billboards and posters with pictures of the presidential aspirants and the VP to lesser extent are erected alongside sideways of the main streets in Garowe – Mostly with a plethora of slogans stating Development, Justice, Security, Anti-corruption, Defense among other pledges and leadership qualities.
The uniqueness of this year’s election is that; usually the presidential candidates are hugely welcomed in droves in almost any village or district they stop at or pay a visit. The streets are reeling with people driving or walking miles to attend the rallies throughout the city and its outskirts. The pinnacle of the rallies is realized during their visit or arrival in the capital city Garowe with massive crowds who welcome their candidate triggering a gridlock which renders the movement of cars almost standstill and trade stagnant at best.
Majority of these congregations represent students from the different levels; (Primary – University levels), unlike previous years, education centers are hugely affected by the election campaigns as they witness frequent campaign rallies for the last month calling them to release students to participate in their welcoming rallies. This for sure would affect the education performance of 2018 education calendar across all levels.
During the rallies, personal vehicles with loud speakers and other means of sound systems transmits candidates’ main messages or music, calling and/or rhyming on people to come out and welcome to the “Upcoming President” as they drive around the major roads in the city. Similarly, the crowds wave both the Somali and Puntland flags & sing songs in praise of the presidential candidates as they wait their favorite aspirant in the rally appearances.
To some candidates; it’s merely a “Whistle-Stopping” – Which is the practice of making speeches in many towns in a short time, often during a single day/journey! Whether this is due to their tight schedules or their intention is just to visit these towns to secure the votes of their MPs, this practice has become an applied mechanism by the majority of the candidates specially those who visited off-the-tarmac regions.
The Classical Candidate:
To depict a typical presidential contender in Puntland, He’s (and I emphasis He, because no female candidate barely bothers to ponder about running for office in this male-dominated society) either from Diaspora or has been in the country for ever, attired in a nice, high end suits or Somali traditional regalia during the rallies; candidates drive an expensive luxury car (Usually Toyota Land cruiser V8) and at rare moments armored ones coupled with heavily armed security escorts together with other personal assistants dressed like the USA’s special secret service agents. Usually they’re male dominated young boys at the age of 25-35 with dark sunglasses and mostly armed with pistols. But, this year’s election campaign has seen a rare and unconventional scene where one of the candidates included female agents into his security detail. The candidates rent huge villas for their stay and for their campaigns.
The daily activities of a typical candidate includes; having a brief meeting with campaign teams, inviting for the public gathering to deliver his agenda as well Visiting the well-respected traditional chief’s homes who are the king makers as the buck ends with them in appointing the parliamentarians who will represent their constituency or shall I say the sub clan and similarly hitting the streets and visiting markets and prominent tea-shop centers usually with the intention of showing that the candidate is mingling with the ordinary citizens. And of late, of course a couple of photos for the social media is in order, to show how serious the candidate is about his campaign, an act that is nowadays locally dubbed “Igu-Sawir” which loosely translates in English as “Take a photo of ME”!. It has a negative connotation that there is nothing substantial in the act, but a mere photo opportunity.
Although in Puntland the Vice President is equally elected by the parliament as the president, yet there is no much campaigning or rallies conducted by the VP contenders. Actually, the first two VP aspirants emerged from within the currently serving cabinet plus the incumbent VP who is vying for re-election!
The Campaign Focus:
During the rallies, candidates usually deliver speeches stating their leadership qualities as well as promising to transform and develop Puntland. However, so far there are a number of issues which enhances a candidate’s chances to win as they remark during their speech and these includes;
Read more- Puntland Election: A Dichotomy between Real Politicking & Rhetorical Mantra
Najeb Ahmed
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Najeb Ahmed is a Consultant on Environmental Management, Part time lecturer and a columnist.
He can be reached at: Najiib98@gmail.com
@NAJIBalala19
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