Staring at trucks festooned with campaign signs winding their way through the streets of the capital, Hawa Mahamoud was disappointed that she would not have a chance to directly vote for her candidate for president in November.
“I don’t like the way we are going to vote,” said the mother of five who owns a hotel business on the outskirts of the capital. “We should be given the opportunity to elect the president of our choice rather [than] using parliamentarians to impose leaders on us.”
It’s hard enough trying to organize a democratic election in a country wracked by poverty and a grinding guerrilla war with one of the world’s most vicious terrorist groups. Organizing a vote that accurately reflects the will of the Somali people is adding an extra level of complexity to the task.
The elections will not be a one-person, one-vote affair. Authorities have ruled out direct polling because of security concerns about al-Shabab, the al Qaeda-allied Islamist militant group that controls much of southern Somalia and has claimed responsibility for terrorist attacks in Kenya.
Saying they want to expose the illegitimacy of Somalia’s fledgling government, al-Shabab leaders have threatened to kill candidates and campaigners and attack polling sites in a bid to disrupt the voting.
“I see this as a golden opportunity for al-Shabab to showcase its might,” said Nazlin Umar Rajput, a political analyst and chairwoman of the National Muslim Council of Kenya. “Somalia does not have the capacity to hold free and fair elections. I don’t foresee a peaceful election. Somalia is very unstable. Somalia is still in civil war.”