Sunday September 7, 2025
Mogadishu (HOL) — Somalia's Independent National Electoral
and Boundaries Commission said Saturday that voter registration for the
country’s long-promised one-person, one-vote elections will resume on Sept. 9.
Commission Chairman Abdikarin Ahmed Hassan told reporters
the registration period will run until Sept. 30, allowing newly registered
political organizations to recruit supporters.
He urged other groups that have met legal requirements to
register, saying the commission’s offices “are open at any time.”
Earlier Saturday, the Commission registered 14 political
parties, including those led by former parliamentary speakers Sharif Hassan
Sheikh Aden and Mohamed Mursal Sheikh Abdirahman, marking a significant step in
Somalia’s transition away from the clan-based power-sharing model.
Somalia’s federal government and a faction of the opposition
recently signed a political agreement aimed at reshaping the electoral process.
Under the deal, members of parliament will be directly elected through
universal suffrage and will in turn choose the president — a hybrid arrangement
that combines Somalia’s parliamentary tradition with direct voting.
The resumption of voter registration comes amid heightened
public debate over electoral reforms in Somalia, where decades of conflict and
political instability have delayed efforts to establish a stable democratic
system.