Ay up, ever read a headline and thought, “Well, what’s the craic here?” Let me fill you in on the insider juice. Over in Mogadishu, it’s not just the Somali tea brewing hot; their parliament’s just given the green light to a law that’s set to shake up the election scene. They’re gearing up for a voting system that’ll finally hand over the ballot keys to every dude and dudette in the country. Now that’s what we call democracy getting its groove back!
Gather ’round for espresso shots of democracy—173 lawmakers, snug in their suits, made their voices heard. Not a single nay or sideline sitter in the crowd. Talk about being on the same page! Speaker of the House of the People, Sheikh Adan Mohamed Nur Madoobe, isn’t about to let this momentum fizzle. He’s all about fast-tracking the creation of the rules that’ll bring this vision to life. “Giddy up,” he’s telling the newly-minted election prep committee, “there’s no time for faffing about.”
And just when you thought the plot couldn’t thicken, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud threw his hat in the ring. Somalia’s parliament ditched their holiday plans to heed his rally cry for moving away from the old-school, clan-based election model toward a shiny, new universal suffrage system. We’re talking full democracy, where every person has a say—time to dust off that voter’s card, friends!
In early moves this month, the interim parliamentary squad that’s got the pen on all things election-related hitched its wagon, naming former Deputy PM Mahdi Guled as chair honcho. Senator Iftin Hassan Iman Baasto is his wingman as deputy chair. Their to-do list reads like a grocery bill: write up how political orgs and elections should operate, and kickstart the independent election commission. That’s quite the heavy lifting to do before dessert!
But hey, in the intricate dance of politics, not everyone’s in sync. Some squawking echoes from the likes of MP Abdirahman Abdi Shakur paint the new committee’s actions with a rebellious brush. He’s standing on his soapbox, proclaiming it’s all shades of unconstitutional—a thorn in the transitional governance garden.
This big tick to the law birthing an independent electoral and boundaries bod is a landmark moment. You can feel the winds of democratic change but hold your horses because it ain’t all peaches. The road’s paved with knotty political disputes and folks clutching their constitution tighter than their wallets—hurdles that could trip up those bright universal election dreams.
Keep your peepers peeled and spirits jazzed, mates. Democracy’s dance in Somalia is as spirited as it is challenging, and it’s just getting started. So, here’s hoping the next act is smoother sailing for all involved. Who knew politics could be such a cliffhanger?
Edited by: Ali Musa
alimusa@axadletimes.com
Axadle international–Monitoring
