Somalia voting system.

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Somalia’s voting system has long relied on indirect, clan-based selection of lawmakers who then choose the country’s president, a model that leaders and international partners have repeatedly said they want to replace with “one person, one vote” elections.

Somalia has not held a nationwide direct election for decades, with insecurity and political disputes cited by Somali officials, analysts and international partners as major obstacles to broader voting.

How national leaders are chosen now

Under the system used in recent national political cycles, Somalia’s citizens do not directly elect members of the federal parliament.

Instead, traditional elders play a central role in determining representation, reflecting the country’s clan-based power-sharing arrangements commonly described as the “4.5” formula.

According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s Parline database, 135 traditional elders select 14,025 members for electoral colleges, with 51 members for each of the 275 seats in the House of the People. Those electoral colleges then indirectly elect members of the lower house.

Somalia’s president is elected through a parliamentary process, rather than by a direct popular vote.

Push toward direct voting

Somali administrations have for years promised a transition to direct elections, but implementation has repeatedly been delayed.

International partners urged cooperation with Somalia’s electoral authorities after the enactment of a federal electoral law in 2020, describing it as part of the framework needed for one-person-one-vote national elections and emphasizing the role of the National Independent Electoral Commission in implementation.

The United Nations has also linked Somalia’s planned transition to universal suffrage to the capacity of the National Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission and to political cooperation among Somali stakeholders.

Mogadishu local vote highlights the debate

In late 2025, residents of Somalia’s capital were set to vote in a local council election organized across Mogadishu’s 16 districts that the Associated Press described as the city’s first one-person-one-vote poll since 1969.

AP reported that opposition parties rejected the process and that Somali analysts described the vote as a major departure from the country’s longstanding reliance on negotiated clan-based arrangements.

Somalia’s National Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission said more than 900,000 voters were registered across 523 polling stations in the capital region, AP reported.

Even as proponents argue that direct voting can broaden participation and accountability, critics have warned that moving away from negotiated clan-based mechanisms without broad agreement could deepen political rifts in Somalia’s fragile federal system.