By Ahmed Abbas
I. Introduction
The signature event of the bogus electoral law passed by the two houses of the federal parliament by the president at the closing ceremony of the 6th assembly of Somalia’s 10th parliament, took place on the 21st February 2020. President Farmajo used on the occasion of the closing ceremony which had no relevance with the signing of the electoral law, for his own public relations that has been dwindling recently because of his blunder of many fronts such as his dismal failure in security sector and deteriorating relations with the federal member states. The president was in search of an opportunity of what could be called a win in front of large crowds that included legislatures, oppositions and many dignitaries.
On the occasion, president Farmajo stated that federal parliament legislated electoral model which is different from the one proposed by the government. The jovial mood expressed at the occasion of the assent of such law is a reflection that the parliament approved indeed what Farmajo wanted. The removal of the clause required the election of the president by popular vote is the only significant change that parliament have exerted on the draft submitted to the House of the People (HoP) on May 2018 by the Council of Ministers (CoM). In all other matters the alleged electoral law represents an act of collusion between the parliament and the President. Below is the summary of the passed legislation and the pending machination that will be conducted to secure successful coup d’état to keep farmajo in office beyond 8th February 2021.
II.Affirmation of Single Constituency
Article 10 of the electoral law provides “Single Member Plurality” requiring that the country will be divided into 275 constituencies. In such model one MP shall emerge among number of contenders for a single seat on the bases of who is ranked at the top according to the majoritarian systems known as “First Past the Post” (FPTP). Paragraph 3 of article 12, on the other hand, states “Pending the conduct of popular and nationwide official census for the allocation of 275 seats of the HoP shall be based on area constituencies, the election will take place where is possible in consideration of the agreed power sharing formula”. According to this paragraph, area constituencies shall be done only after popular consensus is held. This nullifies article 10 and reasserts single constituency system that government wants to take place.
The paragraph 8 of article 12 on the other hand rule the setting of special arrangement for Somaliland by the Federal Parliament. Without any prejudice to any legitimate consideration of the actual context of any part of Somalia, this paragraph is clear statement that alleged election will not take place thoroughout Somalia. Similar arrangement will be applied to Puntland and Jubaland that officially disowned the election following the closer of offices of the NIEC in these two Federal Member States (FMS). The recent decision of Jubaland Council of Ministers that categorically repudiated such election reinforces the principled position against flawed election. The electoral law election assented by the president shall not also take place different areas controlled by Al-Shabab.
In a nutshell, the conduct of this farce one person one vote election (1P1V) shall be implemented in the following manner:
- Although the planned election will only take place in few localities, however, it will be presented as it will take place in the entire country;
- The level of turnout of the eligible voters is irrelevant because any small number of votes casted shall be recorded in percent terms as representing the entire Somali electorate;
- In the event that this system doesn’t work, the same law provides extension option in Article 53 as a fall back;
The letter sent by the Speaker of House of the People to Somalia’s International Partners explains the toxic nature of the legislature process of the current government. Speaker Mural assures to the intended recipients of that letter, that the law approved by the HoP on 28 December 2019 “is implementable by 2020/2021 albeit number of issues that still require political consensus and further debate by the parliament.”[1] The approval by legislature body of a law that “still require political consensus and further debate in the parliament “ is unlikely to be found in the record of the practices of defunct dictatorial systems in anywhere in the globe. The proceedings in the debate and approval of this law by Upper House on 8th February 2020 is another paradox of its own. The hasty presidential assent discloses that the current president is the god father of all manipulations of the incumbent authority.
Close scrutiny of the letter discovers the colossal scale of fraud that shall be committed to secure the re-election of the current president. According to the letter, these issues that “still require consensus and parliamentary debate are:
- Anchoring constituency and seats ;
- Securing representation of women;
- Voter registration;
- Announcement of results and;
- Separate arrangement for Somaliland seats.
The above issues listed in the letter of speaker raises the concern of number MPs of HoP that may jeopardize the attainment of sufficient majority in favor of the bill. To circumvent such challenge the leadership of the house urged MPs to pass the law expedite passing this law just to meet the deadline beyond which the international community will not commit pledged funds to support the election. The leaders of the HoP pledged the ratification of the discrepancies in the law with resolutions that will be enacted by the parliament. On the basis of such fake promise women MPs, MPs from Somaliland and above all the MPs that insist to anchoring of all seats on constituencies voted in favor of the bill. Expecting that the promised resolutions will have an effect of law, even if the house passes, is self-deception because president Farmajo has on his side the Supreme Court to nullify them.
The actual purpose of the letter is to tamper with the text by taking out the clauses that require the biometric voter registration and announcement of the results within 48 hours after the closer of the polling sights. The removal of biometric option from the text passed is clear testimony of the intention of the government to make use of ghost electorate. The announcement of results beyond 48 hours provide also opportunities to staff ballot boxes ticked by appointed election staff (Ku Shubasho in Somali).
III. Conclusion
The approval of alleged text is a law only by misnomer, but represents the accomplishment of the first benchmark intended to increase the life span of Farmjocracy to be coupled with imminent launching of the “BIG PARTY” hinted by the current Deputy Prime Minster of the Federal Government, at several occasions. This will set the stage for the implementation of sham election with only predictable outcome of simulated but actual reelection of the current President. The remaining time of less than a year is sufficient to undertake pending details to make the mission accomplished.
It’s not necessary to be a gifted soothsayer to foretell the annulment of the current provisional constitution and automatic termination of existence of the FMS and the Upper House in the event that the reelection of the current president is successfully manufactured. The limitation of the number of rounds that same person can be elected will be removed include the limitation of the term that the president can remain in office.
Based on the above considerations, the law passed by the two houses and signed by the president, is neither one person one vote, nor a result from a political agreement, thus, it should be rejected by all stake holders.
Ahmed Abbas
Email: [email protected]
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Ahmed Abbas was lecturer of the faculty of Economy of the Somali National University ( 1979-81), he is also member of the former committee of experts for the finalization of the current Provisional Constitution of Somalia.
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