Dr Dahir Mire: SOMALI ELECTION 2016: CONCEPT NOTE: HYBRID ELECTION PROCESS

Somalia emerged from a political transition in September of 2012 to become a fully recognized sovereign country again. At last, the hope of the Somali people and the International Community was raised the fact that the nation is back from a “failed state”, and, if all go well according to plan, will stand on its feet once again. With such a hugely inflated expectations, the current government came head on with seemingly insurmountable challenges and a constitutionally mandated benchmark. Now, the Somali people, as well as the International Community, endeavoring in the stabilization and the state-building process realize the facts on the ground and the challenges ahead seriously put in doubt even a partial realization of the mandated goals.

electionsSome of the challenges are:

– Completing the formation of a functional Federal Branch of Government in the Parliament (the Senate) and the Judiciary (the Constitutional Court, the Judicial Service Committee and the High Court),

– Forming an independent, inclusive and functional commissions,
– Completing the formation of the federated member states with agreed boundaries and citizens,
– Constitutional review and revision and its adaption in a national referendum,
– Conducting nationally acceptable census and redistribution of members of the parliament based on the numbers of the new census,
– Defeating Al Shabab and creating safe and secure environment nationwide,
– Enacting statutes to form national political parties and give them time and space to be ready for political engagement and competition,
– Solving secessionist issues of Somaliland and finally holding a democratic election of one man one vote in 2016.

In this concept paper, I will not dwell on all the questions but the most relevant one today, where to go from here?

Installing a new legitimate parliament that has the quality and the mandate to move the nation forward is the centerpiece of the whole political process. If we get right the formation of the Somali Parliament, the rest of the political process is manageable and has a good chance of success.

The Hybrid Concept Objectives

To create grassroots-level community consensus and compromise,
To create sense of legitimate representation, transparency, and accountability,
To incorporate the age-old Somali tradition in the political process in a legitimate format,
To prevent to disenfranchise some of the communities,
To prevent electoral fraud and corruption,
To elect criteria-based persons for the Somalia Parliament
Political Objectives of the Hybrid ConceptSomalia elections

The political unity and the harmony of the communities in Somalia should be the overriding objective of any political initiative. Democratization process, in itself, is not and should not be the end goal. In Somalia now, security, peace, unity, economic and social progress and then democratization, in that order, should be the national priorities in the short term,
Its critically important to realize the repercussions that a failure to meet constitutionally mandated goals will have on the federal government of Somalia as a whole,
All political stakeholders should realize and give serious consideration the forces threatening the peace and the long-term stability of Somalia, including the growing buildup of Al-Shabab in the sub-region,
Traditional leaders, current government and political stakeholders should be part of a grand political consensus and compromise. Such a consensus and compromise is a founding principal and an enduring practical way of life of the Somali people for centuries,
Fairness, transparency and legitimacy of the process of electing parliamentary representatives should be one of the main political objectives,
Any interim political arrangement could throw Somalia off the normal constitutional cycle of term limits and create unchartered situation and political uncertainty,
Eliminating and/or minimizing partiality and bribery in the election process of the members of parliament is critical for the legitimacy and integrity of the whole process,
A hybrid Alternative

1) Somalia Federal Parliament has to enact statutes that recognize and register sub-clans and their traditional leaders (Nabadoons only) of each of the 275 MPs as one constituency. This has to be properly identified and documented and should be all-inclusive,

2) Local traditional leaders caucus: The documented traditional Nabadoons of the sub-clans that each MP represent should meet, in the presence of the Election Commission, to decide three things:

The particular clan that their MP will come from or other arrangements. In this case, there should be a statute in place to reach a decision if there is no consensus,
The criteria of the person that is to become the MP,
Selecting members of the popular caucus that should come from the cross-section of the local sub-clans with each Nabadoon alloted an equal number of delegates,
3) The MP representing such a constituency should be elected by a caucus of all the sub-clans that the MP represents by a secret ballot. The size of this community caucus should be manageable. Every sub-clan that has one Nabadoon (Diya paying unit) could be allotted to have 10 delegates, which at least, 3 to be women,

Explanations