Direct election and its impact on peace building in Somalia

Somalia came into existence in 1960 when northern and southern parts (known as British and Italian Somalilands) united and declared Republic of Somalia. Since then, like the rest of the world, there were, more or less, national and local elections until 1991 when armed oppositions groups overthrew Somali government led by military ruler, President Mohamed Siyad Barre. Oppositions groups failed to form Somali government. Because of this, full scale civil war erupted which caused widespread destruction and the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians. For the first time since 1991, internationally recognized functioning Somali government and parliament were re-established in 2000 after Djibouti Somali peace conference using a unique kind of election known as "doorasho dadban" in Somali language which literally means "indirect election." Under indirect election, Somali citizens, unlike the rest of the world, are denied their basic right to go to the polling stations in order to elect the candidates of their choice. Instead, clan elders appoint members of city councils. Then, city councilors, using secret ballot paper, elect mayors and district commissioners like the rest of the world. Clan elders also appoint members of Somali parliament. The MPs, in turn, elect Somali president by casting their votes secretly like some countries in the world. In 2021, Puntland state of Somalia, for the first time, terminated the so called indirect election and held local government elections as usual. Citizens went to the polling stations and cast their ballots secretly by choosing the candidates they wanted. Unlike the indirect elections in the past, the 2021 direct elections happened peacefully without the deaths of innocent civilians and the destruction of private and public properties. Therefore, this thesis attempts (using empirical data and statistics) to investigate if the 2021 direct elections of Puntland positively affected Somali peacebuilding process.