Upcoming Elections

Presidential, 31 August 2008

Description of Electoral System:

(courtesy of IFES election guide)

Somalia is a country in transition. De facto the state has been in anarchy since 1991 with only loose governmental structures. There are not general elections by the populace. The interim Transitional Federal Parliament (TFP) of 275 members was selected in 2004, with each of Somalia's four major clans getting 61 seats in the parliament, and an alliance of minority clans given 31 seats. These seats were selected by traditional clan leaders, such as in shura councils, or were chosen for their office because they were powerful de facto leaders such as warlords or businessmen. Once appointed, the Parliament then voted, as a representative body for Somalia, to elect President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed. Somalia therefore is a representative democracy and technically a republic, but has not yet held any general elections.

Electoral Systems Snapshot

(Courtesy of International IDEA)

*Click on links for definitions

WANT MORE ELECTION RELATED STATS FOR SOMALIA? Go to "election databases" on the left-hand menu of this page OR comparative data on the right-hand menu and choose your area of interest.

Politics of Somalia

(courtesy of wikipedia)

The politics of Somalia are defined by the state of civil war which, since 1991, has divided the country into various warring entities and autonomist and seccessionist regions. One area in the northwest, Somaliland, forms a stable although internationally unrecognized de facto sovereign state.

At the beginning of 2007 Somalia was consolidating under the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), which recently completed a military campaign against the Islamic Court Union (ICU). The TFG is supported by the United Nations. Until recently, it governed out of an administrative capital in Baidoa. In the last days of 2006, forces of the transitional government supported by Ethiopian forces ousted the ICU from Mogadishu. Peace keeping forces from the African Union are expected to support the transitional government in its bid to control the country.