Popular elections are to be held in Somalia in 2020 for the first time since 1969. UNSOM has been mandated to support the preparation for the elections.
International Partners
In December 2019 the International Partners released a joint press statement urging that the future election model of Somalia should:
Respect the Constitution;
Ensure that the federal elections are held on time in late 2020/early 2021, without extension of the terms of the Executive or Parliament;
During the civilian administration that existed prior to the seizure of power by the Supreme Revolutionary Council in 1969, there were a number of local political parties. Most notable of these early institutions was the Somali Youth League, the nation's first political organization. Upon assuming office, the Siad Barre-led SRC outlawed all extant political parties and advocated a form of scientific socialism inspired by Maoist China and the Soviet Union. Following the outbreak of the civil war in 1991 that saw the ouster of the Barre regime, many of the few remaining political parties gave way to autonomous or semi-autonomous regional states in the northern part of the country, or fragmented into feuding militia groups in the south. After several unsuccessful national reconciliation efforts, a Transitional Federal Government was formed in 2004 with a mandate leading toward the establishment of a new constitution and a transition to a representative government.
Post-transition
In June 2011, the mandates of President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the Parliament Speaker Sharif Adan Sharif Hassan and Deputies were extended until August 2012, after which point new elections were to be organized. As part of the official "Roadmap for the End of Transition", Somali government officials met in the northeastern town of Garowe in February 2012 to discuss post-transition arrangements. After extensive deliberations attended by regional actors and international observers, the conference ended in a signed agreement between President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, Speaker of Parliament Sharif Adan Sharif Hassan, Puntland President Abdirahman Mohamed Farole, Galmudug President Mohamed Ahmed Alim and Ahlu Sunnah Waljama'a representative Khalif Abdulkadir Noor stipulating that: The 2016/2017 election was an improvement on previous elections where many votes were bought, but it was still by indirect suffrage. The last one-person-one-vote election in Somalia was in 1969 and the resulting government did not last the year. Under Halima Ismail Ibrahim and the NationalIndependent Electoral Commission another one person one vote election will take place at a cost of $53 million in 2020/2021.
